


Teleporter Korrasami AU

by hellorhogwartsfics



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Character Death, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-03 23:49:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 79,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2892626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellorhogwartsfics/pseuds/hellorhogwartsfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern Non Bending Teleporter AU Asami meets Korra after discovering her new powers.</p>
<p>Sort of a parallel universe to the bending world, lots of headcanons and crossovers with LoK and AtlA as well as a tonne o' Korrasami. All with my own twist of teleporters and time travel.</p>
<p>Started as one story but is in the midst of a sequel that is really letting me expand this world.</p>
<p>Let me know what you think in the comments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Asami nursed her tea with a heat deprived sip. It was always cold in Republic City around the winter solstice but that didn't mean she had to like it. Even if the sky was indomitably beautiful, it was midday and the full moon still hovered pale and anxious in the blue.

In from the ice she waited and shivered, absorbing the hiss and bustle of the coffee shop around her, the smell made her nose wrinkle in a not too unpleasant manner, but the new crushed bean people were raving about hadn’t peaked her interest quite yet. She tried not to drink too fast as she waited, not that she couldn't afford it, but if she drank the dozen or so cups she was craving, she might not be able to stay still enough to see Korra arrive. 

 

She had had a telephone call the midnight prior, and Korra sounded elated and terrified, but refused point blank to divulge what had gotten her so riled. 

 

_Meet me at the new coffee place tomorrow ‘Sami, trust me. This is something I have to show you in person._

 

How could twenty-one words hold so much hope? Asami chided herself for starting to expect too much. Korra was her best friend, nothing more. Since her accident it had taken time for her to even begin finding her way in this world again. Public services seemed to be a perfect fit, Asami had to admire how, after high school she had found the will to re-educate herself, from learning to walk, to taking up a new calling, police, paramedic, fire service, Korra was going to do it all. The CEO however was already thriving at something she was born to do, literally, she’d been learning to balance books for as long as she could remember. The pair had been inseparable for over a decade now, yet as of late, after caring for Korra so ardently this past three years as she reformed, Asami had felt her attachment grow, and in a big way. She had yet to mention it to Korra however, any moment she could break, relapse or go off the rails, Asami felt like her only lifeline. She couldn't bare to tarnish it with something so trivial as her unconfirmed unrequited complete adoration. Korra had only had hetero relationships, and Asami wasn't certain of her feelings at all. It was almost as if the more she pretended she didn’t, it came true, and they were normal, easy, mixed with a bit of pain. Yet the evenings they spent together, casually watching movies, or sharing takeouts between work and school, Asami felt like the gaps between their thighs on her tiger-dillo skin couch was a chasm of volcanic consequence. Sure to explode if she edged her fingers too close to her leg. The months went by and Korra needed her less and less, as much as the heiress wanted to let her grow, she was having difficulty letting go. She was all to happy to know that Korra still depended on her, enough at least to call her in the middle of the night to let her know she was scared. 

 

There was no logical connection between suddenly realising her love for the girl and her calling her to arrange a meeting at an ungodly hour. Korra wasn't cruel enough to play with her like that, was she? No, not her. She was certainly completely oblivious at times but Korra was always conscious of the emotions of others, unwaveringly kind, loyal, and yes, also brash, but Korra had a good mind for predicting consequences. Whatever had shaken her enough to reach out to Asami in this covert manner pointed to something big, yet unimaginable to the heiress. 

 

Her alabaster ears almost pricked out of her raven locks as she caught a voice riding the steam. It took her a moment to witness Korra adamantly describing her order to the coffee clerk, bewildered at her odd frustration. Asami blinked, identifying mocha skin, muscular arms, hugged by a bloody bandage of her upper forearm, and her legs wrapped in sandy coloured cargo pants and black boots. What was most perturbing was Korra’s hair, usually styled in wolf-tails at her cheeks and a pony tail high on the back of her head, was now a fetching, albeit slightly tousled brown bob that accentuated her jaw. Asami watched in disbelief as she listened to Korra reiterate.

 

“Come on Kwong, you’ve been doing my order for a like whole year, mocha latte with a caramel twist. You know this.” The clerk blinked, eyeing Korra’s cut face and arms and shuddering at the familiarity in which this apparent, dirty, bloody, sandy, stranger was using his name. He managed to open his mouth and form coherent words.

 

“We opened yesterday M-miss, I’ve never even heard of that drink.”

 

“Very funny Kwong, just make it up like you usually do. And it’s for _Kor-ra_ in case you’ve forgotten you dolt. I’ll be over there with Asami,” and with that she threw her yuan on the counter and turned fully to Asami, grin widening in a way that made Asami’s chest jolt. Her eyes softened and Asami swore, through her ridiculous inappropriate-for-the-weather tight white shirt, her stomach muscles were flexing all for her. The high school swim team and physical therapy had certainly been good to the Water Tribe Woman. “Hey you.”

 

Before Asami had a chance to stand, Korra took two, perhaps three strides towards her, pitched down to her her eye level and shut off her brain with a gentile kiss on the heiress’ open lips. Asami went numb and seized in surprise, barely registering her best friend’s fingers seeping into her hair, tracing into places that sent shivers scoring down her spine. When Korra pulled away, sensing tension, she didn’t relieve her of her delightful grip, her clear blue eyes searched Asami’s emerald and brows drew together. 

 

“Baby what’s wrong? I didn't think I was gone too long this time.” Asami double blinked in stunned silence as Korra inspected her, subconsciously tonguing the lipstick she had lifted from Asami’s lips.

 

Asami felt the sting of tears bead in her eyes. She couldn't begin to establish what was wrong, but this was _wrong._ She had been so careful, so worried, so adamant in keeping her feelings a secret and here Korra was tearing them out into the open. _How did she even know? Why would she even do this?_ Without another word she slammed down her now cold cup and shoved Korra back. 

 

“Asami!” 

 

“You’re unbelievable.” She clutched her hands to her chest and stormed out of the shop. 

Kwong watched as he was about to charge Korra’s weird though, not awful smelling drink towards her when he noted the distraught look on her face.

 

She marched over to him, ignoring her purchase her was preparing for her and demanded.

 

“You opened yesterday you say?”

 

“Ugh, yes, yesterday, December 26th 2014.” He wasn’t sure why he added the year, but it wasn’t until the last number left his lips did Korra’s face pale. She opened her lips an octave, and a revelation passed through them over a deft breath.

 

“Oh my god it happened to me.” 

 

What happened next made Kwong think he’d been slipped cactus juice at some point, because he blinked, and Korra’s death grip on his shirt had been relieved, and better yet the terrifying brawn woman was nowhere in sight.

 

Asami bore down on her sobs with all her might, even though she knew Korra wasn’t watching she wanted her to know she wouldn't get away with affecting her like this. There was so much she had to say and do before she could work up the courage to kiss Korra, and now that she had taken it she felt like something precious had been stolen. 

 

“Twenty _fourt_ een?” She stopped in her tracks, feeling her best friends warm breath on her neck she whirled. 

 

“Get out of here Korra!”

 

“But that’s the year right now, twenty _fourteen?”_

 

_“Of course it is you bimbo!_ Did you forget how time works or something? First you tell someone you like them, then you wait for them to like you back and _then_ you hold their hands and stick your tongue down their throat! In fact why am I even talking to you! We’re done.” She whirled and was stunned to find her face plowing into Korra’s chest on the other side. Her hard hands gripped her elbows and eyes trained on hers. “What the-”

 

“I called you a year ago on the 26th, this is _that_ december the 26th?”

 

“What are you blathering on about?”

 

“Asami, think about what I just did.” A flash of lime green, red, gold and blue hit Asami in her eyes and the world around them shifted and morphed. They were back outside the coffee shop and Asami found herself trembling under Korra’s hands. “I’m about to tell you what I can do. What I was _put on this planet to do._ I’m running late but I’ll be here soon so this will have to be quick.”

 

Asami was completely out of her element, as Korra spoke all she could do was question up and down, life and death, backwards and forwards, coffee and tea. 

 

“Asami listen,” She felt the pulsing warmth radiating from Korra’s palm oh her jaw and cheek, “as far as I can tell, I am the December 2015 Korra, I have been a teleporter for over a year, _since this day,_ and the 2014 Korra is on her way to tell you and ask you to be her, my Familiar, my confidant. It’s a spiritual calling, there maybe only a few of us in existence, but we pull people out of certain death situations and save their lives. This is why I’m all bloody - I’ve just spent a week in Gaza extracting a family of four.” Asami hadn't blinked for over two minutes as she listened. Finally she found her voice.

 

“Gaza is a fucking warzone.”

 

“It’s what I was _born_ to do, but I need you to do it. To be there, to support me.”

 

“You kissed me…is a Familiar a…a girlfriend?” Asami gently extracted herself from the younger woman’s grip. Korra’s hands hovered near her until she knew that she could stand on her own two feet.

 

“Not usually, usually its a sibling or a parent or even another teleporter. It’s someone who can keep you sane. But you were the first person I thought of and, to be honest, in six months we’re gonna start dating.”

 

“Six months as in June?”

 

“Summer solstice yeah. You always joke that you picked it so our anniversary would let us get presents, every six months…” Korra gripped the back of her own neck anxiously. “I’m so sorry I startled you. I remember you said you lov- liked me, like this, since before my accident. So I’m sorry if you think I’m toying with your emotions but believe me,” Her gaze dropped and absorbed Asami, even in winter clothes there was something to the imagination with the way that she held herself, her body, her beauty, her eyes. “I have them too…I honestly didn’t know I was _that_ kind of teleporter until now. I don’t know anyone who can time travel…I don’t even know if I can get back.” She looked down at her boots and finally felt the cold seeping into her pores, and shivered. “A year without kissing you again. I don’t know if I can handle that either.” 

 

Asami was still struggling to grasp the concept of teleportation let alone time travel and the new nuances, this different Korra and the Korra apparently on her way to tell her this surprising news.

 

“Why couldn't you…do that again? Now?” Korra gave her a hope filled look and answered with a soft tone.

 

“Because I don’t want to change how we get together, not a second or a moment. It’s perfect. Just like you.”

 

“How can you be sure you haven’t already?” Feeling oddly confident, Asami managed a step. She let her eyes travel up from the ground to Korra’s loving gaze. She had never seen her look at anything that way. What had she done to make her look at her _that way._

 

“You’ll just have to trust me. I can tell you it is worth the wait.” Asami subconsciously brought her mouth parallel to Korra’s, only to watch the soft dark lips hide behind teeth and her head tilt back barely. Her eyes hit Korra’s again, only this time the blue was trained on the brick on the ground. “I kind of have to go through somebody before I get to you. Another teleporter.” 

 

“Why do I feel like this is some kind of break up.”

 

“She teaches me so much.”

 

“ _She._ ”

 

“ _It’s worth it I promise you!”_

 

_“Korra-“_

 

_“_ You have to give it time Asami. Everything is in motion and if I change anything now, it could destroy so much!”

 

“How can you tell me this and then expect me to just let you walk away with some tramp!”

 

“Trust me.” Korra’s hands slid up her arms and Asami twisted, forcing Korra to wrap her arms around her shoulders. Her hot breath soothed her ear as she whispered. “Everything will be okay. I will have you all to myself. We will be the endgame for all time, I promise.” Korra had heard these words before but dared not spoil them explaining that to Asami. They’d worked and the heiress wormed her arms out of her grip to cling onto her back. 

 

“Prove it.” She whispered. “Prove that we’re going to be together. That you know me like that.” The desperate ire in her best friend’s voice tore into Korra. She supposed with their now messed up timeline that this was the moment Asami learned the affect _that tone_ had on her besotted time-travelling girlfriend. Without missing another beat she turned her head kissed her jaw, up softly, turning hungry and passionate until her lips clung to hers. The CEO barely registered the screech and crash on the far corner of a Satomobile and it’s drunk driver bowling into a post box. Their mouths came apart like putty, aching to stay together even at the molecular level, with each other printed on the skin. 

 

“I know that crash,” _smeck,_ “I’m going to be coming around that corner any second.”

 

“No…Korra-” She was silenced with another exquisite, knee trembling kiss, before Korra stepped away, unable to look at her. She said it with such pain in her voice, but she had to none the less. 

 

“I love you, Asami. _Wait for me._ ” In another, unbearable flash of gold and green she was gone. 

 

At least the Korra that was intrinsically in love with her was. True to form; Korra with her wolf and pony tail came jogging round the corner, expression unreadable as she looked back, amused at the stumbling pot-bellied drunk now being berated by the city’s chief of police, who’m had just posted a letter herself.

 

“Hey you.” 


	2. Chapter 2

Her eyes glittered, but it was nothing as powerful as was in her future. Asami touched her lips to wipe the surviving lipstick away from her mouth, somehow ashamed and distraught in the same moment. _How can she be so oblivious?_

 

“Hey,”it was an odd shivering reply, and Asami immediately wished she hadn't opened her mouth. She was staring at her best friend, hard, hoping it was all a joke, she’d pull on her tails and they’d be short, and they could start kissing again. 

 

“Wow you sound cold, lets get you inside.” With a friendly arm to her elbow Korra guided her through the doors. “I’ve heard good things about this coffee stuff I thought a cutting edge woman of business like yourself would like to try something new and hip.” Korra bounced her hip encouragingly with her own. Frowning slightly as Asami seemed to be going through an unidentifiable set of motions. Before she could ask what was wrong Asami managed to ask.

 

“There was something, um, you wanted to tell me? Show me, rather.” She cleared her throat and watched Korra’s mocha skin pale. 

 

“ _Korra! Prepaid!”_ Kwong’s shrill voice cut through her drooping stomach. “Kor-ra!” Kwong reiterated after he got no immediate reply. She gave Asami a shit-eating grin. 

 

“I won’t say no to a free cup.” she slipped in and out of the crowd with precision and an unnatural amount of grace, Asami watched as she gingerly sipped at the cup. “Wow this stuff rocks, here try some.” she edged it towards her, Asami found herself unable to stay her flinching. “You okay?” Asami didn't want to admit, even to herself, that she wanted to savour the taste Korra had already left on her lips, or would eventually. 

 

“I’m kinda full already, I got here…early,”

 

“Yeah sorry about that I uh, met some people, it’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Asami pursed her lips, lest she rip reality apart by confessing her morning. Korra plucked at the coffee lid beneath her fingers confidence and bravado snapping back into her in the wake of the impossible.

 

“Look,” Asami began, briefly wishing she hadn’t but she forced herself to keep going, “whatever’s got you panicked like you were this morning is big.” If she wasn't still reeling she might have smiled at the irony of her next words. “I promise I’ll understand whatever it is.” 

 

Korra’s eyes glazed for a moment, her fingers loosening on her cup as a thousand thoughts flickered beneath clouding crystal blue. Asami knew she was weighing the consequences of what she was about to do, she’d seen this look a thousand times pass across the younger girl’s visage and knew instantly that this was the last one before making a permanent decision. She would either lie to hide what she was, or completely reveal it. Feeling brave the Engineer reached out for Korra’s hand and held it in hers, “Trust me.” she urged. Korra looked down at their hands and squeezed. She took a step and Asami held her breath. 

 

There it was, less vivid as the first time but still just as disorientating and exhilarating green and gold swallowed her whole. The ice that had seeped into her boots melted, and the hiss and babble of strangers and their machines faded into the ether. For a glorious moment, Korra and Asami were all that existed, and had stepped outside of reality altogether. 

 

She kept her eyes fixed on Korra’s features, scrunched in concentration. Adorable. What willpower Asami had left was being absorbed and struggling with the want to kiss her then. The thought lingered as the colours faded. Korra froze glaring at the ground as Asami began to accept her new surroundings. She couldn't have imagined a more perfect spot if she had tried. It was where they began.

 

“Yue Bay.” Asami whispered in as flat a tone as she could muster, blush still hot and howling through her entire body. Heart beating so hard and so fast she was sure if she could see herself, it would look as though she were rocking back and forth like a mad woman. All she could think was, _this is the first step to the rest of our lives together. It’s finally happening._  

 

She remembered family trips to the place when they were girls, where the families had met and continued to meet until play days were a regular weekend thing. It was always a magical scene untouched by sea or time. Though it was winter, the memories kept the pair warm as they stood. Asami watched their ghosts patter in the stream that formed a thin moat between the sand and the rest of the world. Korra used to block it up with rocks and declare herself the master of the ocean and that the lowly beach people just had to deal with that. Asami would watch from the land and carve sand into monuments as her father and mother watched proudly. They were stood beneath an archway of cliff and sand, beside them an further under the looming structure was a pool that they used to swim in, neither being tall enough or strong enough swimmers to touch the bottom. But that didn't stop everybody from trying.

 

The heiress began to smile as she remembered the look of glory on Korra’s face when her father, just as much the athletic specimen as she, did it wielding a fistful of shells in their faces for good measure. Korra’s shell was plastered onto the head of her childhood bed nowadays. Asami’s was on her mother’s grave. 

 

_“_ Asami? _”_ Korra’s voice cut through her encapsulated thinking, “You’re not freaking out as much as I thought you’d be.” Asami juddered, both from the cold and the complete inability to know how to act now. She double blinked, training her eyes back onto Korra, and found her voice quiet and genuine.

 

“I did suspect that this would be something amazing.” 

 

Her words hit Korra somewhere in the chest and abdominal regions, the breath she had been holding flopped past her lips in a whoosh and she fell into Asami, who caught her gratefully. She felt Korra squeeze her with her full strength, closing her eyes in an attempt to stay reaction as her warm lingering almost _familiar_ breath trickled into her collar as Korra buried her face into her neck.

 

“So you’re a teleporter huh?” 

 

She tried to seem like she didn’t already know, analysing every word before she let them pass through rosewood lips. Korra allowed herself a laugh and stepped back, rubbing at tears that had escaped being pressed into Asami’s throat and jacket.

 

“We’ve been calling ourselves Jumpers, but Teleporter has a nice ring to it.” 

 

Asami’s eyes widened, immediately going over her encounter with future Korra in her head, and yes, she had only ever referred to herself as a teleporter. She wondered briefly if this was why, the memory of Asami putting it into terms she could understand seemingly for the first time. Her head began to ache.

 

“I can take you inside somewhere if you’d like to talk, I know it’s cold. I just thought…this place, there’d be no way you’d think this is fake…” The pair knew every rock, nook and crevice that surrounded them, indeed a layer of frost had taken roost around its sharp edges, yet both knew and felt that this was indeed Yue Bay, as it would always be etched into their minds. “We can only go places we’ve seen before really.”

 

Asami wavered, rocking back on her heels as her mind raced. She loosened her grip on Korra’s, eventually dropping the hand altogether as they eyed the water. Asami hugged herself tight, Korra clenched and unclenched her fists as she waited for the silence to break. 

 

“We?” she asked nonchalantly. Not sure how she’d feel if there was a woman amongst the new secret cult of whatever it is Korra was now a part of.

 

“Four more Jumpers, and their…Familiars. Well two Familiars, the guys are brothers and are each other’s Familiars. Familiar’s are like, soul…guardians, we keep each other grounded so we don’t go insane with power or grandeur or whatever…”

 

“How’d you meet? The other Jumper’s I mean.”

 

“They called me.”

 

“How did they get your number?”

 

“No they _called_ me. I was asleep in my bed and then I woke, from a nightmare I think and as I sat up I, uh well they dragged me out. I woke up in this white and orange room. Varrick had set out crash mats for me to land on.”

 

“Varrick, I know that name.”

 

“You would he’s a scientist. His wife, or assistant I can’t tell which, became a teleporter two solstice’s ago and he’s been obsessed with getting us all together ever since.” Asami recalled the man, eccentric, erudite and completely mad. He was a genius, although she hated to admit it, and had heard collaborating with him was so painful that no one could get any projects past the basic concept stage. She had thought that had been the reason for his absence at galas, no one could guess this.

 

“I thought this was spiritual- I mean it seemed that way when we…you.”

 

“It is but there are physical elements to it that he’s measuring. He has a whole lab set up and training facilities, I’ve can show you, you can meet everyone…” Korra trailed off, realising she’d neglected to ask the most important question, “that’s if you want to. I know you’re busy.”

 

“I’m the only person you’ve told?” Asami smiled at the hopeful thought, dipping to catch Korra’s downward gaze. She grinned back at her feeling acceptance in such incapacitating waves that she barely thought about whatever came out of her mouth next.

 

“You’re the only person I want to.” The blush on her dark skin was heart wrenchingly endearing, Asami couldn’t help but unlatch her fingers from over chest and throw them back over Korra’s shoulders. That was all Korra needed, her toned arms wrapped across Asami’s slender back and crushed her into her, and then their special place seeped away, and was replaced, at first by brilliant affluent green, then a sterile glaring white walls with orange coving.

 

“Zhu Li! I’m 156% sure that Korra girl is getting attacked!” Asami flinched as Varrick’s shrill shout filled the humungous room. Asami turned to witness the man, eyes encapsulated by goggles, hair firing out in thick black tendrils from behind the straps, bolting towards them in earnest.

 

“They appear to be hugging in the landing pad.” Zhu Li answered in her trademark flat tone.

“Go do the thing! Sweetums,” 

 

“I’m afraid I didn't sign of on that pet name yet Sir.” Zhu Li added, but she said it with a smirk before the woman teleported to the two girls side. “I trust this your Familiar, Korra?”

 

“Uh-” Korra swallowed. Stepping back from Asami and habitually gripping the back of her neck.

 

“Yes.” Asami interjected, “I promise to keep her sane.” she reached a hand out for Zhu Li to shake.

 

“Yeah,” Korra took a step as yet another weight fluttered off of her shoulders, “Zhu Li this is Asami-”

 

“Sato!” Varrick announced proudly rounding in on them, “I’ve been meaning to get you in for a meeting to collaborate with me on some things, picture this; the internet for your _eyes_! Surgically implanted microchips _drilled_ right into your corneas!”

 

“I’m really just here for Korra, Sir.” Korra had to bite back a chuckle. 

 

“Well then, let’s meet the team!” Asami had to admire the inventor brushed of rejection and failure like it was nothing. Varrick sprinted to the nearest door, Asami caught the small appreciating smirk that Zhu Li had as she gazed after him, remembering with a jolt the way Korra had looked at her that morning, and kissed her, and held her and told her she loved her and the world stopped moving until she disappeared. Korra’s hand spurred her out of her daze, and the pair stepped into the next room through the veil. 

 

“Jump Team, do the thing!” Varrick announced, out of breath. They had entered into a room with a box dead centre, a box taller and longer than the human body it could almost have been a room, if not for it’s fundamental lack of doors and windows. 

 

Next to this was an assault course, water tank, weights and a salad bar that currently had two young men pawing over it hungrily, both black hair and pale skin except one was tall and the other slightly shorter and stockier. The shorter of the two turned from inhaling his plate-mountain of food and swallowed to shout excitedly.

 

“Korra!”

 

“Hey Bolin.” Korra said with a warm smile. The taller of the two nodded before they both set their plates down and teleported over to them in perfect unison. “Mako.” Asami had half a mind to be jealous, but whatever jealousy was left in her was reserved for the mystery woman who she had yet to meet.

 

“Bataar Jr!” Varrick shouted indignantly, “Where’s your Jumper?”

 

Bataar Jr. lifted his head out from behind his laptop, his attention ripped away from the rows upon rows of numbers and algorithms that he had been pouring over since he’d got here six months ago. He shrugged and turned towards the clearly sign posted bathroom sign and shouted.

 

“K you in there?”

 

A faint reply could be heard, Asami stopped breathing. For a moment nothing, and then she felt Korra’s hand drop from hers. Before she could inspect her best friend’s face she knew, this was she. Kuvira. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've never done fanfiction before and I never dreamed (but secretly hoped) that people would like my crazy ideas and writing style. 
> 
> I have an ending in mind so don't worry, no spoilers, but we haven't seen the last of Future Korra...in present time that is. Let me know what you think in the comments. 
> 
> :)


	3. Chapter 3

Kuvira didn't appear human, there was something fateful and inevitable about her. She stood before the group towelling onyx locks, cool eyes holding Asami and Korra with a smirk, knowing how she looked in malachite sports bra and shorts. Pale skin her armour, slender fingers her blades. Ready for anything anyone could throw.

 

“Ready to go another round hot shot?” Asami felt her blood swim to her feet as she listened to the sharp silken voice taunt her. She could almost feel Korra’s blush on her ear. Her brain began a mantra of  _no no no no no_ until Korra spoke.

 

“I’m still all bruised from the last sparring.”

 

Asami flinched as Varrick slung one chummy arm around her shoulder, and another splayed his hands to the ceiling. 

 

“Asami you should have seen it, this was a match the likes of which no man, woman or ostrich-horse has ever seen. Young Korra here dove right into it. Why if I had a mind for it we could have Jumper Boxing Matches right out of the gate, charge the Earth for it, we’d have to get a few more players mind and a costume selection to boot, give it a little-”

 

“We have better things to worry about.” Kuvira reminded. Varrick unlatched from Asami’s shoulders but the heiress could tell by the twitch in his eyes he was still thinking about this. It was a money making eye twitch.

 

“Yeah my pod sister nearly got her ass kicked.” Kuvira puffed out her chest as Bataar Jr. all but hooted with glee.

 

“I was adopted.” she reiterated, “I wasn't actually grown in a pod.”

 

“We still don’t have proof for that- _oof_!” Bataar Jr. was suddenly greeted with a swift, yet playful gut punch, as he keeled over Kuvira playfully knuckled his hair.

 

“It was just luck.” Korra shrugged, turning to better include Asami, “Miss Sato here is the  _real_  martial artist out of the two of us.” Kuvira stopped bothering her brother for long enough to take in Asami Sato. The CEO felt her green gaze on every pore of her body, through her clothes, over her paling lips. She wished more than anything she had reapplied the lipstick her future lover had kissed off. She really felt like she needed the war paint right now. She took a breath and kept her composure.

 

“Why were you fighting?” Asami received her reply from Bolin, who had nonchalantly started pacing behind his brooding brother.

 

“We have to practice fighting because literally every mission we have will have us in close quarters with potential enemies, they could strike at any moment and we have to be  _ready!_ ” On the last word he pounced, and Mako dodged, apparently without moving a muscle. 

 

“‘Sup Princess.” Asami felt his breath on her ear and stamped backwards on his big toe, succeeding this act with a swift elbow to his sternum. As he wheezed, Korra, Bolin and the recovering Bataar Jr. broke out in unrestrained guffaws. Asami kept her gaze true, straight at Kuvira. She did feel bad for winding the poor boy, but as she turned she realised like his brother, he had erupted into painful laughter. 

 

“She’s ready! Aha! Sign her up now!” 

 

The group began to fan out and demonstrate what they had been learning. Mako and Bolin took to bicycles and showed Korra how to effectively jump with moving vehicles. Teleporting was the easy part, stopping without crashing was nearly impossible. Asami tried her best to keep her concentration on Korra, in her element and embracing her new role. Yet still she couldn’t shake she dark green hint that tinged her senses and the sideways glances Kuvira gave Korra as she flourished. It seemed enough for her to keep them short while she and Bataar and occasionally Zhu Li and Varrick compared notes and theories. Until it wasn’t. 

 

Varrick ordered a thing or two be done about his and his wife’s growing hunger, although she hadn’t mentioned being discomforted for a second as they worked. The man just knew. Laptops were cleared and noodles replaced them, as the group rearranged, in the scuffle Kuvira wound up sitting thigh to thigh with Korra. Asami sat sandwiched between the brothers. One half of which was all to eager to share his seat, noodles and stories with the confounded CEO. Guess which one. She eyed the girls with conviction, vigilantly catching Kuvira’s too quiet to hear ministrations towards the Water Tribe woman. Panicked Asami piped up with the first thing she could think of.

 

“So Varrick. Korra tells me you’re close to figuring out what makes the Jumpers, well, jump.”

 

“Molecules!” the man shouted gleefully, mouth still full of noodles. Instantly Zhu Li was by his side with a napkin, he dabbed after swallowing and reiterated. “These beings have absolute control of their own molecules, using ancient spiritual energy, I call ’em Varrickules! Their minds can take apart their bodies  _and put ‘em together somewhere else!_ ”

 

“ _What?”_

 

_“_ It’s not as painful as it sounds Asami.” Korra assured.

 

“It sounds insane and just-what if they never get back together again? What if Korra jumps, in her sleep or unconsciously and is  _obliterated_?”

 

“This is why its  _spirit energy,_ that stuff’s got a pulse and a mind of it’s own sister. And how! It  _chose_ these people. All I have to do is figure out what a Varrickule see’s in its perfect host!” Varrick was thrumming with pride. “and presto Insta-Jumper!”

 

“And that’s just the tip of the ice berg.” Kuvira piped in, everyone’s attention suddenly on her, Korra’s curious, Asami still slightly enraged, this distaste slowly growing as she spoke freely and without shame. “Think about if we had control over the way we reshaped ourselves, a better consciousness of our ability could warrant shape shifting, human flight, spontaneous regeneration-even bending the elements at our will -  _it’s all possible!”_

 

_“That’s incredible.”_ Korra gasped, smiling excitedly like the rest of them.

 

Asami blinked hard, calming herself. This evolution, perhaps she could find the key to why future Korra came back. 

 

“What about time travel?” she added in earnest.

 

“Now that’s science fiction.” Kuvira snarled, suddenly feeling like she was being mocked.

 

“But rearranging the molecules in your face to give yourself better eyebrows isn’t?” Asami snapped back. Mako turned to her.

 

“Was that a dig at me?”

 

“I wouldn't need that anyway. I’m gorgeous already!” Bolin piped in, desperate to break the tension.

 

“Is it? If you guys transport molecules in space, who’s to say it can’t be achieved in time.”

 

“It would take an exceptional amount of power to accomplish such a feat.” Zhu Li rationalised.

 

“They’d be the most powerful person on this Earth.” Varrick mused uncharacteristically quiet. Asami caught it and her heart seized, now completely unable to look away from Korra’s wide eyes. “Speaking of power! Who wants to try the  _box!”_

 

A collective groan emanated from the Teleporters. Asami stood with her arms wrapped around herself, suddenly feeling like a prudish outsider as her conscience ran rampant. She knew Varrick’s next step already, bottling and selling Korra’s ability to the highest bidder. Being chosen was one thing but being able to take this power without being judged by whoever seemed corrupt. And then what would happen if these mad people got a hold of the power Korra would have in exactly one year’s time. It was a miracle time hadn’t already imploded on itself. Maybe they were in a tangent universe. Any minute Korra’s going to be telling them all she’s the master of a dinosaur and we’re all just going to have to deal with that.

 

A series of  _oof’s_ and curses flitted through her concentration. She looked up, eyeing the tall box in the middle of the room and witnessing Mako and Bolin running headlong towards it, teleporting, only to ricochet off it’s side. Kuvira did the same, only instead of flopping onto the hardwood like an ungraceful rag doll she caught herself and found the ground pliant and ready to catch her feet.

 

“What are you doing?” Asami 

 

“The Box! Asami come watch from the best seat in the house.” Varrick was insistent and oblivious to the nerves of the heiress’ he had been dancing on. He dragged her to a laptop and pulled up a live feed of the white room with a single table and small red object inside. No doors, no windows, just the empty room and an active timecode in the corner of the screen. “This is part of my plan to expand their horizons, these guys can so far only go places they have been -  but imagine how powerful they’d be if they could go places no one has even seen!”

 

“If there are rules to this thing maybe we shouldn't test them until we have a full picture.” Asami countered but her heart wasn't really in it. She watched Korra bounce from the walls and plow right into Kuvira. The taller woman laughed and adjusted Korra in her lap, bopping her nose in a gesture that sent a blush flaying through the Water Tribe girl’s features. Asami bit her lip and snapped her eyes back to the screen, hoping suddenly one of them would make a break through. Or that Kuvira could find her way inside and not back out.

 

Asami’s eyes traced the edges, she felt her eyes heavy lidded and her resolve faltering. She spied the time, it was only four o’clock. She flinched when Korra’s warm hand touched her shoulder.

 

“Are you okay? I didn't think you and Varrick would bump heads this much.”

 

“Yeah I’m just trying to get the whole picture. Mostly I’m just a little exhausted.”

 

“I’m sorry if this is too much too fast. Do you still want-”

 

“Of course I do. But I’m not going to make a half ass job and not make sure that you’re completely okay. It’d make me such a lousy friend.”

 

“You’re the best I could ask for.” The sentiment immediately dug a pit in the centre of the heiress’ stomach, she wondered how many more of these friend zone encounters she would have to endure before she could confess everything to Korra. But the destruction of everything seemed to put a damper on following through. Until Korra did the unthinkable, arms already folding around her, her lips found home against Asami’s cheekbone clumsily before continuing to squeeze her without looking at her expression. Any moment Asami felt like she was going to have an aneurism. Her lips parted to suck in a breath, and the only way she could exhale was if her air was connected to the words.

 

“Oh  _god,”_

 

_“_ What _?”_ Korra stepped back when Asami’s blush just hit supernova.

 

“I-uh, just remembered I have a meeting…to get the new line of Sato-Mobiles across the Eastern seaboard before spring! It’ll fall apart if I’m not there,” Korra nodded graciously, rescinding her arms and slipping her fingers into her pockets.

 

“Sorry if I’ve been hog-monkeying you Miss Sato.” She teased, knowing full well that when it came to Korra, Asami would drop everything in a heartbeat. “Maybe when the deal goes through I can take you to New York, save on air fare.”

 

“That would be economical for me if I didn't own the airline.” Asami’s lips found her smile again, all the anger dissipating from her psyche as Korra fed her fingers though her own. “Drop me outside Future Industries tower?”

 

“Consider it done.” Gold and green, and then brown, green and blue. Korra had teleported them so they were facing the park opposite Asami’s company’s skyscraper. Her fingers slipped away. Asami leaned forward and held her close to hug goodbye.

 

“Everything will be okay Korra. I promise.” She felt the shorter girl take a deep breath and grip her tighter. It didn't take seeing her to know she was still scared. She took a step back.

 

“I’ll see you soon.”

 

“Tomorrow.” Asami confirmed. Korra was grinning again.

 

“I’ll text you.” and with a snap, within the wind or without it Asami couldn't tell, Korra faded into the air.

 

Asami had lied about the meeting of course, she just wanted to get away, to process, to stop hiding her feelings from Korra. She stepped into the road and towards the foliage. The sun was already setting, but it was held by the trees in such a way that filtered rays of mystical light hung from branch to branch. Collecting herself in her winter garm, she begun a brisk walk towards her apartment on the other side.

 

She couldn't help it, whenever she spotted a crowd, even just a group of people she scanned it, for a muscular arm, a high brown pony tail, and now that captivating accentuated bob. A group of joggers chuffing on the far end was as good as she could come up with as she walked. Hopeless she let her eyes scope the trees, high up and then low. 

 

She thought she was mad when she caught khakis in the snow,  _sitting,_ of all things, at the base of a fir trunk. Knees brought up to whoever it was’s face and arms, wrapped in a dark blue bomber jacket clutching around those below the tousled head. 

 

“Korra?” the person was unresponsive, breathing softly and seeming content to keep their perch on ice. Asami bent down and pressed her hand on the back of her freezing neck. 

 

“Hey! Whatduya-!” She flinched and came apart, glaring incredulously at the CEO. They stared for a moment, Korra’s chest heaving. “I can’t figure out how to get ba-.” she began lamely. Cut off by Asami falling to her knees in front of her and hooking her hand behind her neck. 

 

“I don’t care.” She urged, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and pulling her flush against her. “I’m so glad you’re still here.”

 

“I was meditating and I uh, guess I fell asleep out here.”

 

“God you’re freezing!”

 

“I thought you’d be mad.”

 

“So mad I could spit Korra.” Asami turned her face into Korra’s neck, familiarising herself with the scent. “How could you moon over that-that  _tank of a woman?”_

 

_“_ I didn't  _moon.”_

 

_“_ Please you we’re mooning so hard -  _Yue was cringing.”_

 

“Well that’s nothing compared to how I feel about you.”

 

Asami blanched, lifting her face out of Korra’s skin and facing her, with perhaps an inch between their lips. She inclined her head a little but Korra retreated.

 

“Don’t,” she started to slip away, “I’ve already ruined our first kiss.”

 

“So now we have two.” Asami pitched forward again, only this time Korra didn't stop her. Feeding her bandaged hand in her hair and tickling a spot behind her ear with her fingers on instinct as their lips spoke silent sweet nothings against each other. The heiress’ arms came up behind her head and opened her mouth, tantalising hungry tongues and teeth. She felt Korra’s heartbeat thrumming against her own chest, she pulled away, watching the Water Tribe girl catch her breath and mitigate for her raging blush. 

 

“We can’t do this,” she whispered.

 

“Do you love me any less?” Korra held her head in her hands and stroked her cheeks.

 

“I wouldn't know.” How could either one of them tell if times were changing or they were changing time? Asami desperately rationalised and hypothesised for several aching frozen moments in Korra’s gentle arms and the sharp winter air. Her head throbbed and she leaned her forehead on Korra’s chest.

 

“This is the weirdest day of my entire life.” She murmured. Korra laughed, stroking her fingers through her hair in an effort to sooth her headache.

 

“You’re new you’ll learn.”

 

“Don’t leave again okay? Just take me someplace warm.” Korra felt Asami relaxing under her fingers, her hips had found their way during the kiss between her knees and she absorbed the warmth the CEO emitted happily. With no recourse of action Korra admitted to herself that there was nothing more she’d like to do in that moment, than what she was told.

 

“Okay baby.” 

 

 

Green and gold, and once again, nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

Asami didn't want to think. She didn't know what she was doing was impossible or wrong, she just wanted to do it. She’d waited so long to kiss Korra, it didn't matter if it was in this dark place. 

Korra had taken them to an apartment overlooking the harbour in the south of the city. 

 

It was already Asami’s, she had bought the property last year upon the insistence of her father. _Find a new hobby,_ he’d insisted, _you’ll run yourself ragged otherwise._ Advice croaked through prison bars lost its value. Real estate quickly ran its course anyway. She kept this one though, because of the view. Yue Bay was a ferry ride away. She had also bought it with the intention with sprucing it up in her free time. So far she’d managed to store within it old summer clothes and Future Industries prototypes as a promise to herself, and the old tenant’s mattress and ratty coffee table was all that remained of the furniture. She didn't ask how Korra knew about it. She didn't care.

 

A storm had taken hold on this edge of the city. Sleet rain and snow slapped harshly on the windows, mopping and skewing the city lights with a thick brush. As beautiful as it was it was also pretty inconvenient. The power was out. Korra sat on the bed and watched Asami untangle herself. She padded to a kitchenette and pulled out some candles from a cutlery drawer.

 

“Damn I don’t have a light.”

 

“I do.” Korra whispered. “C’mere.” Asami had imagined Korra saying that with that voice and look so many times. She urged her heart to still.

 

“And yet you were freezing out on the street.” Asami flung her coat on the counter, arching her back after being relieved of its weight.

 

“I wasn’t exactly in a public park. I didn't want to incur the wrath of Future Industries.” She sat beside her and watched as Korra lit a wick with the end of her finger. 

 

“What the-?”

 

“Molecules. Move them fast enough something is bound to combust.” Korra twisted and started melting and setting up candles on the coffee table. 

 

“Don’t start quoting Varrick to me, I had enough of that maniac when I met him at the galas and now I have to deal with him with this.”

 

“That was probably a spoiler anyway. I think we need to lay down some ground rules Sato.” 

 

“Oh yeah?” by the time Korra turned back to her after absentmindedly picking at the wax and varnish behind, she found Asami straddling her and softly kissing her lips.

 

“Yeah.” she whispered against her jaw, letting her hand paw a warm path up her thigh, “No more spoilers. You can’t ask me,” _smeck,_ “how we get together. And you can’t tell my other self about this. You have to let me get there on my own. It could have massive implications for reality not to mention I’ll think I’ve gone crazy and well I can’t even begin to think of how I’d act around you.”

 

“So I’m essentially having an affair with your future self?”

 

“We’re not dating yet.” Korra reminded, “And I don’t know how long it’ll be before I can figure out how to get back. It could be a day. A week.”

 

“A year?” Asami leaned forward, tracing lips beneath Korra’s jaw and feeding her fingers in her short hair which she’d decided she loved.

 

“That is plan B.” Korra whimpered arching her throat to give her more for a moment, and then re-wrapping her hands around the heiress’ to push her back gently.

 

“Ok what else?” Korra’s face twisted a little, somewhere between a smirk and grimace.

 

“You’re gonna hate me.” 

 

“What is it?”

 

“No sex. I can’t ruin our firsts with this, it seems so unfair.” Asami let out a laugh as she sat back in her embrace.

 

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” The way Korra’s skin lit up with embarrassment was deliciously hilarious. For a moment she seemed legitimately frozen in fear as she contemplated whether or not reality was about to implode around them, only relaxing again when Asami took her face in her hands. “Korra, it’s fine. I’m too tired to think about that anyway. Right now I just want to hold you, and fall asleep with you on this old itchy fucking mattress…and I reserve my right to debate about the sex later. ” 

 

“We could get take out?” Korra smiled hopefully at her, finally feeling the stark hunger pangs after realising she hadn't eaten since Gaza. She rolled her shoulders and began to peel off her stolen jacket, making herself at home under Asami’s warming gaze.

 

“I’d like that.” Emerald eyes traced over Korra’s flickering form, warm and tantalising by candle light. She reached an exploratory palm over her throat, and shoulder, her fingers ghosted over a litter of scars that puckered in strips over her collar bone and Korra caught her hand from the seam of her shirt. It was more of an involuntary jerk than a genuine reaction of fear. Theses came and went for years after the accident, after therapy, physical or otherwise still the ides of twisted metal and seething foam lingered in her peripherals. Just as Asami had evoked them however, she was the only person who could calm her.

 

“You’ve seen those.” she crooned as her fingers knitted through hers.

 

“Three years and you’re still touchy about it.” Asami teased before leaning down to kiss them gently, smiling against them as Korra fed her fingers into raven locks.

 

“Technically for me its four.” A loud growl jolted Asami out of her sensual assault. She laughed placing her hands on her stomach. She didn't think much to Korra catching her hands and pulling them away.

 

“Alright I’ll feed you,” Laughed the heiress, swinging her leg off of Korra’s and pacing back to her jacket to find her phone.

 

“This is not a date.”

 

“Where was that by the way?”

 

“We had it right at the corner of 14th and Nunya. _Nunya_ _Business.”_

 

_“Damn_ so close.”

 

_“_ Nice try Sato.”

 

Asami marvelled as they settled into an easy groove. Korra rolled off the bed and began pawing through boxes for things that resembled bed sheets and spare clothes, she stopped mid sentence on the phone to Narook’s Noodle Emporium, watching and imagining Korra unpacking _their_ things. Like the ghosts on the beach she saw her putting up her Water Tribe family shield over the faux fireplace, and Asami would accessorise with the first Sato blue prints that were essentially just as valuable heirlooms. In that instant she knew why Korra chose this place. It wasn’t Asami’s, it was theirs. She mumbled the address automatically on the phone, tasting her future on her lips. When the line went dead, she continued watching.

 

Sheets over her shoulder, Korra was now fumbling in boxes that clinked and rustled with an excited inquisitorial glint in her eye. She pulled out a shoe box with a contraption and scrolls of notes inside.

 

“What’s up with this Electrified glove? It’s huge.”

 

“Those are my dad’s old prototypes from before the coup. I’ve never really looked at them. How do you know what it does?”

 

“Spoilers.” She mumbled pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose as she silently chastised herself. “I _really_ need food.” 

 

Asami was entranced by the technology as well, since her Father’s shame because public knowledge she’d veered away from allowing the company to create anything that could be seen as a weapon. But in the light of Korra’s new calling maybe some specialised equipment to keep her girlfriend safe would be the perfect next step. She took it limp from Korra’s hand and slipped it on as if by instinct, plucking aimlessly at the dials until she was sure it would work. She clenched her fist and bright blue sparks circled wildly around the leather and copper. 

 

“You’re scary when you do that.” She looked up at a smirking Korra. She heard her phone buzzing in the kitchen and splayed her fingers threateningly towards the Jumper.

 

“Don’t you dare teleport anywhere while I get the food.”

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” Korra gulped. 

 

Asami sprinted to the elevator and twitched nervously all the way down. She jammed the money in the poor delivery boy’s chest so hard he nearly fell of his Satocycle. She hoped the fifty yuan tip would compensate for the bruised ribs. When she got back she heard the most delightful music playing from Korra’s phone, that she had plopped in a tumbler to amplify the sound in a low-tech upgrade.

 

“Who’s playing?”

 

“…Your favourite band.”

 

“I’ve never heard of these guys, but they do sound pretty good.”

 

“ _Crap.”_

 

The meal lasted all of thirty minutes. Korra inhaled two portions with ease and couldn't help but play with Asami’s hair while she finished her firsts. All the while pouring over her father’s old designs. It felt so normal, and while they had acted this intimate at other times in their lives, never had it felt this tender, for Asami at least. She felt like she was holding her breath for a lot of it, waiting to wake up or fade into yet another daydream. Unperturbed by the notion of washing up, Korra swept the containers from the mattress and dressed the sheets around her, finally picking her up to cover the whole bed. She lost her pants in such a flash Asami felt that if her eyes had followed them she’d definitely have gotten whiplash. 

 

“You want help with yours?” she grinned at her and Asami blanched at her flirtatious tone. 

 

“I think I’d like to keep my toes,” She stood and balanced awkwardly on the mattress, unbuttoning her jeans and leaning her hand on Korra’s shoulder as she worked them past her calves. She looked down on her with hooded eyes, Korra couldn't keep eye contact without her face illuminating the room. “Would you like to start that debate now?” she teased. 

 

“I’m sorry I can’t hear you beyond the Sun Warriors playing drums between my ears.”

 

“God you’re so fucking cute.” Asami sat behind her but was blindsided as she hastily tossed bedsheets over her legs. 

 

“Keep it in the safe zone Sato.” Her threatening tone was swallowed by her gulp and breaking voice. “Sleep. Please.” Asami smiled at her, taking a lock of umber hair in her fingers at the end before using the hand to push her back on the makeshift jacket-pillow. Korra brought a strong, possessive arm up her back and Asami settled into her side, head on her shoulder, hand on her clavicle, thumb tracing idle circles on delicious mocha skin.

 

“You were amazing today Asami, and that’s coming from both of me.” Korra’s hand fed back into Asami’s hair at the nape of her neck. Asami couldn't say anything as she felt a lump welling in her throat, it was a bitter sweet mix of hope and dread. “It might sound odd saying that we love you, but don’t worry we’re good people.”

The lump shrank and Asami snickered in her girlfriends embrace, feeling her lips grace her forehead. “I love you Asami.” She reiterated.

 

“I’m not going to ruin my first time with you Korra. I promise.”

 

 

Asami woke alone. Face pressed painfully into the zipper of Korra’s bomber, she whirled searching the room frantically. She was getting all too used to the awful mantra that came with negativity and Korra. _No no no no._

 

She felt her breath leaving her lungs in sharp shattered blades. She tried to piece together her yesterday, how wonderful, fantastical and utterly heartbreaking it was. She was in the apartment facing the Bay, there was no other way she could have landed here if not with Korra. 

 

“You’ve got my zipper printed on your face sweet.” Asami nearly flipped herself completely as Korra sipped a coffee cup and titled another towards Asami.

 

“Oh you cow!” Asami seethed. Covering her watery eyes with her palm and twisting the bedsheets beneath her as she brought her panicked breathing back down. “I thought you’d left me.” She felt the steam waft beneath her lips but Korra wasn't pushing at her anymore, she merely placed them on the coffee table and took Asami back into her arms.

 

“I wouldn't have would I?”

 

“I’m getting whiplash with all the different you’s you know.”

 

Korra pulled her up and into long languid and lazy kisses. She hoped it would translate into all the different versions of her _I’m sorry’_ s _._ She lifted her into her lap, regretting putting her jeans on at all to go out as she ghosted her fingers up her thighs. Not pressing for anything more just enjoying every comfortable inch of Asami against her, forgetting that they were in the wrong time altogether and naturally stripping her of her blouse. Korra didn't think about the implications of what her own shirt would reveal beneath it. Swept up in a tender moment she raised her arms and allowed the heiress to tug it off. As Korra bent forward to reclaim her lips Asami’s head twisted and her mouth hit throat before being shoved back.

 

“Oh my god…” Korra made an attempt to recover her shirt, only Asami’s dominating position allowed her to pry her hands away from a scar on her stomach. New to the heiress, as wide as her palm and twice as tall, it marred the left side of her abs. “This wasn’t the crash.”

 

“It happens Asami, but everything will be okay.”

 

“Kuvira said you could regenerate.”

 

“Kuvira is wrong about a lot of things. You’re right not to trust her. But don’t try to pull me away. If this is going to work. I have to be close.”

 

“You won’t give me spoilers but you’ll give me crazy cryptic _bullshit_?” 

 

“I know you didn't ask for it.”

 

“No but I’ll have to white knuckle the entire fucking situation not knowing what moment you’ll be impaled.”

 

“It’s fine. It won’t kill me.”

 

“ _And what makes you think I can bear to see you hurt again?_ How long did it take you to learn how to walk this time? How can you be _okay_ with this amount of pain when we can clearly prevent it now.”

 

“I’m not risking this. Not for some chicken scratch.”

 

“So this chicken scratch directly relates to you A saving the world and B the beginning of our relationship?”

 

“It’s complicated!”

 

“Why did I think in a year’s time you’d be any less infuriating?” Asami heard her phone buzzed and stomped towards it, whipping up her jeans and doing a funny angry dance as she tugged them on and spied the text.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“To deal with the other you!” 

 

“What? Now?”

 

“You tell me! And I’m taking your coffee!” She snatched up the cups and ripped up her coat from beneath Korra’s elbow.

 

She just reached the door when Korra snapped into existence in front of her, trained hands cupping her neck and cheek and kissing her silent. She pulled away and sidestepped, slightly less angry, slightly more giddy and whispered through her teeth.

 

“No more teleporting. I want to argue with you later. There’s a spare key in the reception. Be back by _five._ ” and with a flip of semi braided, yet still near perfect hair she shimmied towards the elevator.

 

“I love you!” Korra called after her, her blush was a thumb print on the prettiest picture Korra had ever seen. 

 

“I know.” Asami called back, throwing herself into the metal box that sealed her in with a pleasant _ding._  

 

After a shower, a moment screaming into goose feathered pillows and a reapplication of her war paint Asami was ready for the next curveball this world was about to throw at her. She finished her cup without paying much attention to the scribe on the sides of either of them. Deciding once again to meet at Kwong’s she got there early, as usual and ordered Kwong gruffly to give her the same again. 

 

There wasn't a breath of time between receiving the new cups and Korra arriving with another, casual, irritably oblivious, “ _Hey_ _you_ ,”

 

“Hey Korra.” Asami pushed her cup towards her and Korra lifted it to inspect the script on its side.

 

“Who’s _Forever Girl?”_

 

Asami blanched, snorting into her drink with embarrassed surprise.

 

“Wrong one!” She lied, “I don’t think Kwong is much of a barista.”

 

Korra smiled sweetly at her as she gratefully took in the warmth of the gesture. Asami swallowed, this was going to be a long day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the last chapter for a while, not sure I'll be much up for writing tomorrow after ringing in the new year. 
> 
> Keep the comments coming they help 
> 
> Also I know I went overboard with the nerdyness in this one. I'm not even sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

At the behest of both Korra’s, Asami took the time to tie up her affairs at Future Industries for the year. Juggling the lies was becoming both irksome and difficult, and the more time she spent with the Korra who loved her felt like she was letting go of the Korra she was meant to love. 

 

She felt a routine becoming apparent, and for all her time spent in the office, delegating, designing and planning for the newest launches, she kept finding herself distracted by the sheer brilliance that came before ten AM, when she would meet and watch Korra train with the other Jumpers. Korra would show off, excel, and look unequivocally happy both at what she could do, and that Asami was there to share it with. Alas the glee, Asami soon realised was something shared between all Jumper’s and their Familiars. 

 

Every time Mako and Bolin landed a particularly complicated trick they’d share the moment with a silent elated look. Even Kuvira and Bataar Jr. had an undeniable bond and synergy. Varrick was always ecstatic when Zhu Li dove off of a plinth in the assault course and remained airborne for thirty full seconds via continuous teleportation, catching herself in the water tank on the opposite side of the room. He was so proud when her lifted her out of the tank to embrace her he forgot his grip on the side and Zhu Li had to jump them back in for safety. Asami couldn't help but smirk when he pumped his fist and continued his mad ecstatic ministrations while the pair were still immersed. 

 

And then after five o’clock, when she could snuggle up to Korra in her apartment, play with her hair and kiss her lips. They were the same person, but in the space of a few hours she had treat them so differently in order to feel accepted. More than once she’d gone to stroke Korra’s hair from her eyes as she rested during training and had to stop herself. When she repeated the same motion hours later, Korra encouraged it, rewarding her even with kisses so passionate she had a hard time believing it was at all real.

 

The time traveller had taken to fixing up the place and meditating. The heiress lent her one of the Satomobiles from her fleet and having dismissed her mansion staff for the holidays Korra had free access to furniture that had been collecting dust in the manor for decades. Asami didn't want to say it, but the apartment was becoming more and more how she imagined a home.

 

“ _Go_.” Korra urged, hands still holding Asami by her hips and taking her bottom lip between hers. 

 

“Mhm?” Asami tried to challenge, but Korra tugged her back into her arms off of her casual leaning position on the door frame. Her hands flew up to Korra’s hair, which she would have pawed her fingers through if Korra hadn't tied it into an adorable miniature ponytail.

 

“I’m serious you’re going to be late.” Korra nipped playfully at her jaw and Asami bent her neck back.

 

“You can blame future you for making you wait.”

 

“God I’m such a bitch.” Korra retreated, pursing her lips and enjoying Asami’s lipstick, holding the nape of her neck as her bravado snapped back.

 

“And on that note, Happy New Year.” Asami smiled, indulging herself as she twirled loose umber strands around her fingers.

 

“Happy New Year’s  _Eve_ ,” Somehow the sentiment sounded hollow coming from Korra then. She would have asked but her phone began to buzz in her pocket. “You leave it any longer and I’ll be up here looking for you.”

 

“How could she find me?”

 

“Take a wild guess.”

 

“I knew you put a tracking beacon in that phone case.” Korra smiled wryly at the joke, folding her arms over her chest. “And I’ll take whatever you’re keeping from me now, when I see you tonight.”

 

“No you won’t.” Korra said it quietly, usually when she kept spoilers she sounded more playful and yet her gaze remained true, solemn and unyielding on Asami’s. Inexplicably that brought the conversation to an end. Asami felt her present tugging her away a buzz at a time from her future. She let Korra pitch up on her toes and kiss her forehead, and while her mind was spinning she let her body lead her out of the building.

 

She felt the cool sunlight blind her as she walked aimlessly in the direction of the tower. The chill of winter finally found its way into her jacket, and as she hugged herself she realised that every step she was taking now was a complete mistake. She was about to turn back when the undeniable snap of a teleporter-in-training dragged her out of her languor.

 

“Hey you,” before Asami could open her mouth Korra knitted her fingers through hers and jumped them into Varrick’s lab. 

 

“ _HAPPY NEW YEAR!”_ The pair were suddenly submerged in confetti and streamers, Bolin, Bataar Jr. and surprisingly Mako were armed with confetti cannons and were caught in a game that crossed paintball with party poppers. 

 

Varrick’s arms flung more wildly than usual, adamant that no amount of plastic or paper touch the feast he had had prepared. Asami felt out of practice when it came to gatherings, with a lack of family and an entire company in her charge she really wasn't expecting much of a well to do except maybe a movie night with Korra. Her hand flitted away from hers, the Water Tribe girl eagerly sought out a gun of her own before being blasted by a suddenly appearing Kuvira, laughing wildly. The glove in Asami’s purse weighed heavy, and for a moment as she watched she strongly considered using it. 

 

Emerald eyes took in her surroundings, she felt like a sad stranger as she watched, her mind kept going back to Korra alone in her apartment. How long could she go before retreating to her arms for the next year?

 

And then she spotted something, a vestal, bright white flicker in the corner of her eye. She blinked and it shifted, ghostly and becoming more solid with each passing moment. The Spirit slowly caught the attention of everyone in the room, Asami found Korra, looking contrite as she stared at the creature like it was everything she ever wanted. The same expression marred Kuvira, Mako, Bolin and Zhu Li. 

 

“What’s going on?” 

 

“Jumper’s get ready!” Varrick abandoned the buffet and leapt for a trunk under the table of closed laptops. With great effort the Jumper’s turned their faces away and rifled through the kit Varrick was handing to each of them. Kuvira led Korra and placed glasses over her blue eyes, Asami hugged herself as she measured the skin that the older woman traced over Korra’s.

 

“Communication is key.” she explained with a smile.

 

“Asami don’t just stand there come and set up a computer!” Bataar Jr. took Asami by her elbow and led her to the bank. One screen per Jumper, their glasses had wireless cameras in them and Korra’s and Kuvira’s screens were filled with each other. One by one they returned their attention to the Spirit. 

 

“Wait Korra.” Asami all but dived after her. She fumbled and produced the electrified glove from her bag and pulled it on her best friends hand. “This should just knock people out…be careful.” Korra hugged her, bringing her lips level with her ear.

 

“You too.” Asami laughed.

 

Kuvira was reaching towards the light, reading what was beyond it with the skin of her fingers.

 

“Hostage situation.” she read aloud, “Forty hostages. Belfrey Hotel. Incendiaries present…A bomb.”

 

“This is madness.” Asami breathed, but Korra was already walking towards the spirit.

 

“It’s the job.” She shot back.

 

“Korra you’re new. If you feel afraid I want you to just get out of here. The boys and I can handle it.”

 

“And let you have all the fun  _no way._ ”

 

“Suit yourself Cupcake.”

 

And like that they were swallowed. 

 

Asami ran back to the bank; all five screens were filled with a colour scheme of red and gold. Tinsel tinged the seams, snow littered the windows. Kuvira and Bolin had already identified the major perpetrator, livid and screaming at the room of shaking and softly sobbing politicians to whom he had sworn certain freeing death. A madman to his left was wielding a flamethrower over heads, and a woman beside him balanced a sniper rifle on her shoulder. From the edges of the room, the corners and curtains the Jumpers seeped out. Korra spied Mako, silently signalling at her to reach out to a hostage and grab them. 

 

Korra’s attention was fixed however, a target the size of an apple in the leader’s hand, red, small, flashing, his thumb on the trigger. She looked at Mako, who was now frantically shaking his head.

 

“Kuvira the bomb is remote activated, its in range of him by up to forty metres.”

 

“I can’t see it!” 

 

“It has to be above or below.”

 

“Don’t do it Korra.” Asami warned, even without looking at her she could feel that spike of stupid adrenaline and vertigo. She sprinted and vaulted off of a table, teleporting above him, legs high in the air, before anyone knew what was happening she extended an arm down and whipped the controller from the leader’s fist. 

 

Zhu Li was in the rafters, looking down she plucked the needle from a smoke grenade and plonked it into the crowd. 

 

Words gave way to calamitous screaming. Bolin and Zhu Li took out the assailants with weapons ripping them from the ground and teleporting them into the hotel pool. The last man sprinted back, into a stairwell which Kuvira followed after. Her screen became dark as the decor faded into plain sparse walls and service halls. She leapt after the leader just as he hit a heating room and in its a centre a crate loaded with C-4, wires and tubes.

 

“It’s too late the countdown has already started!”

 

“Deactivate the bomb Kuvira, you’re the only one who can! Everyone else evacuate as many hostages as possible.”

 

“How long do we have?” 

 

“A minute.” The screens lit up with red and gold and green, ethereal and blinding. Asami’s heart was in her throat, she clutched her hands over her throat. 

 

“Deactivate it Kuvira!” Bataar shouted holding her screen.

 

“I’m a little busy at the moment!” engaged in hand to hand combat with the leader. They were equally matched, Kuvira with skill, the leader with both a cool head and superior body weight.

 

Korra’s screen was shaking, she had followed Kuvira and as she slammed into the door her glasses had lost connection.

 

“Korra can you hear me?”

 

There came a flash of mocha and bright electric blue across Kuvira’s screen. A grunt. A crack and Kuvira’s glasses too went blank.

 

“Get out of there!” 

 

“How long ago was a minute?”

 

“Forty seconds ago.”

 

Zhu Li, Mako and Bolin appeared in the lab, wounded civilians on each shoulder.

 

“Civilians evacuated Varrick.” She announced as he ran over to them with the med kit.

 

“Where are the girls?” He enquired, receiving nothing but blank looks from the remaining Jumpers. 

 

Asami counted softly in her head. 3, 2, 1. She felt a dip in her stomach. The worst had happened. She was sure of it. She dropped the breath she’d been holding, and felt an emptiness spill over her mind. 

 

How could any of this have happened? Had she been kissing a ghost?

 

She took a step and stumbled. Closing her eyes as her knees hit the ground. Bolin caught her shoulders with his strong hands. 

 

She shifted, the entire room did, all light and gazes seemed trained on the two women entangled on the crash mats at the centre. Kuvira had her hands either side of Korra’s head. Korra had her ungloved hand gracing the hair at the nape of her neck. Their lips were touching just as Asami’s world imploded. She was meters away, but as they parted and Kuvira smiled impishly at the Water Tribe woman, Asami could hear her mic feed picking up again.

 

“Happy New Year Cupcake.” 

 

“You too.” 

 

Asami free’d herself from Bolin’s grip and collected herself, yanking up her jaw and devastation and slinging it delicately over her shoulder. Bearing down on her sobs she took up a med kit, and started mopping a cut on Bolin’s forehead.

 

“You okay Asami?” She blinked, not expecting him to begin talking, or knowing how she felt about it. She swallowed and her lips formed the perfect lie.

 

“Peachy.”

 

She felt the rush of a thousand heartbreaks in just two minutes, but it took Varrick just thirty seconds to start cracking open champagne and firing confetti in the wake of the bewildered disorientated trauma victims. His energy was contagious, and after medical treatment was applied they were offered a choice of a free jump home or to join the party. 

 

Korra’s hand felt like a branding iron on her skin, Asami felt the urge to grab her and reclaim her property but the mirth on Korra’s face was too precious to ruin. Her lop sided grin was too perfect for words, so she waited for her to speak.

 

“So I guess we’re both in relationships now.” Asami flinched, feeling the familiar awful mantra filling her brain. “You didn't think I’d notice all the times your make up was mussed up.” Korra teased, poking her playfully in her ribs. Asami didn't know what to say. “It’s okay you can tell me when you’re ready. Kuvira she’s-” That was it Asami couldn't take any more. She snatched at her hand and immediately regretted it. She had no words. She could never bring herself to initiate anything with Korra. Even now it just seemed so confusing.

 

“You were great. In there.”

 

“Better than a movie?”

 

“Scarier.” Asami admitted.

 

“This was really good. Thank you.” Korra pulled the glove she had tucked into her pocket and made a move to give it back. The glove that had saved Kuvira. That had saved Korra.

 

“You keep it. I can make more.” She allowed herself a hug, tugging tight, burying her face in Korra’s shirt. “I’m glad you’re okay and all but I kind of want to go home.” Korra leaned back. 

 

“But you’ll miss the countdown.”

 

“No I won’t.” Asami gave her a meaningful look, hoping it would disguise her panic and dread that the person she wanted to kiss at midnight might either be taken or missing. Korra’s lips went slack and then she smirked at her.

 

Korra dropped her at the harbour, Asami gave her a fierce hug.

 

“I’ll see you next year.” she joked, stepping back and collecting herself, hating every second that passed by where she had to act  _normal._

 

“Not if I see you first.” Korra winked and disappeared. 

 

Asami sprinted back to her apartment, the elevator wasn't quick enough, she ran until she was breathless. She had to know. She had to assure herself this emptiness wasn't permanent. That Korra was hers. 

 

She was also gone. The mattress covered by mussed up sheets, dirty plate still on the counter top. Melted candles on the coffee table cold. 

 

“Korra?” she dropped her bag, and felt her feet as heavy as lead as she aimed her stride towards the bathroom. She thought maybe she saw steam, but there were a lot of things she had seen today that any normal person would consider fake. She struggled with the doorknob, twisting and pulling frantically until it was yanked open from the other side. Korra in her robe, bra and boyshorts, towelling her short hair. Blue eyes soft and swimming. She didn't say a word, slinging the towel over her shoulder she put her strong arms around Asami.

 

“I’m sorry.” she murmured. 

 

“Shut up.” Asami took her nose out of Korra’s glowing soft skin, and aimed her lips over hers, “just shut up.” she reiterated, tangling her fingers in her locks with one hand, and the other slipping off her jacket. The heiress threw her arms behind Korra’s neck and led her to the mattress, pushing her down and straddling her.

 

“Asami-” every noise of protest was met with a fiercer kiss. Soon all Korra could manage were soft moans of pleasure. She’d hated waiting just as much as Asami did, and as the raven haired beauty slipped her robe off of her shoulders she soon felt her cautious mind shrinking in leu of a lustful one. Before either of them realised it, it was midnight, and the penthouse, at first dark, filled with the reflections of the fireworks over the harbour. Blue and pink and purple filled the room and dyed their skin tones. Dark and light came together, and Asami felt like this was the most erotic moment of her life as Korra finally undressed her.

 

She was glad to wake with an arm warming her thigh. She felt a flicker of dread spike her chest as she remembered Korra’s rules, and her promise, and a secondary wave of guilt, knowing that there was absolutely now way she could regret what happened that morning. Korra wasn't lying about how long they had been dating, she knew Asami’s body better than her own, her instincts were spot on and Asami was hard pressed to remember a moment where her eyes weren't rolling into her head, or moans were being teased past her lips. 

 

“You awake?” Korra didn’t relinquish her soft ministrations on Asami’s thigh, but her free hand pushed raven locks from alabaster skin on her shoulder to kiss it.

 

“I’m not sorry.”

 

“You shouldn't be. You’re an engineer.”

 

“What?” Asami turned to question her, only her words were swallowed by Korra’s mouth. She placed her hands on the mattress on either side of her shoulders. Looking down on her, Asami held her face in her hands and couldn't help the sweet smile that graced her lips when she looked at her  _that way._  Korra felt a tear peal down her cheek, but made no move to wipe it away.

 

“Your future is your own to engineer. Don’t let anyone tell you you don’t deserve what you want. Not even me.” Her thumb was stroking strips over Asami’s lower lip while she spoke, not content to not be touching them at all times. “I’ve always admired how you handle everything so perfectly. Asami.” Asami didn't have to think of anything to say back to that, Korra lapped up her lips in a long daring kiss, pulling their bodies together and the sheet that during the night had separated their skin. 

 

When Korra let her breathe and took to tasting her throat, Asami pursed her lips and found her words.

 

“I was considering this a beta test so technically I didn't completely ruin our first time.”

 

Korra snickered against her skin. She admired how the sun rise, once or twice considered an intrusion on their hard earned sleep beamed through the penthouse windows and made Asami’s skin sing. She had to taste every inch her tongue could reach before she let her leave the bed. 

 

It was a lazy morning after that. Asami pulled on a robe and underwear and started preparing scraps that were left of the fridge. Their take outs had been habit forming. 

 

“I don’t think we have enough for one, let alone one of me and whatever it is you are.” Asami joked.

 

“I’ll go get us buns and coffee.” She looked up from the food to see Korra, already in a t-shirt and jeans. “No teleporting I swear.” She kissed the edge of her mouth before she could turn into it.

 

Korra was at the door grinning, whipping up her keys and jacket. A red circle fell out its pocket and Asami picked it up. 

 

“Why do you have a yo-yo?”

 

“Spoilers.” Korra chimed back before closing the door. Asami smiled after her, welcoming back Korra’s playful tone and playing with the string in her left hand. She caught herself slipping it around her ring finger and blushing for no one. 

 

She’d showered, she’d dressed and before she realised what she was waiting for she realised she was picking at the food Korra had gone to replace over an hour ago. Thinking she must be on her way up, she walked into the corridor. When she didn't come she walked down the stairs with an eager eye out the building length window. Stairs became a reception the reception the street. She cleared the six blocks it took to get to Kwong’s in ten minutes without a sign of her. Heart in her throat she entered the store. Kwong was worrying away behind the counter of a dead shop. His tense shoulders and mumbling under his breath made Asami’s heart seize. 

 

“Sir?” she enquired and he looked up with eyes wide. 

 

“You’re her friend?” Asami swallowed, he indicated to the cups on the counter.  _Forever Girl_ was facing Asami, and faint lipstick touched the rim of Korra’s cup. It was a bad habit, Korra never liked to wipe the marks Asami gifted her with. 

 

 

“I swear I didn't do anything! She- handed me the money and then she put them down to check something in her hand see and she-she just disappeared…with a scream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its a bit of a long chapter, I had a place I wanted to leave it but stuff had to happen before I could.
> 
> It's going to get darker before it gets fluffier. 
> 
> Happy New Year
> 
> Comment let me know what you think


	6. Chapter 6

Korra grinned as she, the master of hand to hand combat, slammed Kuvira on her back. Her eyebrows had shot into her hairline with shock and the resounding _oof_ she’d released was enough to make Korra’s smug laugh slip past the lips that had so often distracted the older woman.

 

“I got you!” she announced with glee.

 

“It was lucky shot!” Korra pointed and shouted proudly.

 

“Admit it - I _got_ you!” Kuvira reacted on blind, blushing instinct and grabbed the finger to save her pride, twisting it and her leg over Korra’s to flip them over. Relinquishing her grip Kuvira found her body pressing flush against the girl below her. 

 

“Be that as it may your pins are sloppy.” she chided with a voice not nearly as firm as she’d hoped.

 

“But I was having fun gloating.” Korra pouted in a way that made every disciplined cell in Kuvira’s body melt. She let her head fall and trained her lips over Korra’s petulant mouth. Kissing Korra nearly made her lose her mind, her mouth fell away and touched a soft strip of skin that sliced a lighter shade on the Water Tribe woman’s jaw. 

 

Korra flinched.

 

“Where did you get that?” Kuvira felt her slipping out from under her already. Korra already had a hand over the scar and it’s sister on her clavicle. 

 

“Accident.” Korra mumbled. “I was in a car accident.”

 

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Kuvira assured, deftly placing her fingers between Korra’s shoulder blades, inadvertently touching another scar hidden by her tank top.

 

“I just get nervous around pretty girls.” Korra smiled, trying to joke her pain away. She leaned her head on her arms, which were balancing on her knees. As Kuvira stroked her spine, she spoke the rest into the floor as though in a trance. “It was raining, and I…we were driving with all this snow and wind and our driver, my uncle, he fell asleep. Eska and Desna were fine in the back…they just don't talk much nowadays. We hit a bollard on the passenger side and I was all twisted while I was asleep anyway. Sliced into the chevy like it was nothing. Cut into me here,” she felt her voice waver as her throat threatened to close as she bent her arm back to indicate her spine, “And the windscreen and this tree got me here where you… on my jaw and if I hadn’t have been _limp_ , or my seat, if it had been locked in place well… I wouldn't have made it. Few inches. Made the difference.”

 

Curiosity got the better of Kuvira, she could feel the puckered flesh beneath her hand in patches and she raised Korra’s shirt to inspect the wide, long marks that dotted her back. Korra tensed, but didn't pull away. Kuvira lowered herself to kiss a patch.

 

“You’re like a reverse Dalmatian.” Korra shivered as she felt her breath hit her spine.

 

“Asami took care of me for so long after that.” This was the point when she pulled her top down. 

 

“Is that why you chose her?”

 

“I would have chosen her if this happened ten years ago. She’s the only person who I could trust with this. We’ve always been good together.” She stood, seeking water, knowing what was coming and knowing further still, that she couldn’t make eye contact when she answered.

 

“Should I be jealous?” Kuvira asked coyly.

 

“Should I be jealous of Bataar?”

 

“Ew. No.”

 

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Korra tossed her head back as she downed the rest of her drink, suddenly feeling low on electrolytes. 

 

“Where is she anyway? I mean it’s not like she needs to be here but it’s cute the way she checks up on your training.”

 

“She still worries. By all accounts I shouldn’t be walking and yet,” Korra shrugged, “She’s got a new secret boyfriend.”

 

“And here I thought she was horrible at applying make up.” Korra laughed but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. She was grateful that she was looking at Bataar Jr. and Varrick on the edge of the room at that moment, pouring over wires, and machinery in pieces around them.

 

“They’ve started to build the _Teleporter_ _Ray_ huh?” Korra bent down and rifled through her kitbag for her phone.

 

“We’ve got to come up with a better name for that.”

 

“ _Insta-Jumper_ wasn’t bad…You’re not worried, what sharing this might do to the rest of the world? People might not deserve it.”

 

“People could save themselves. Doesn’t everybody deserve that?” Korra felt the last few words whispered gleefully into her ear as Kuvira wrapped her long arms around her stomach. Korra didn’t answer she was too busy refreshing her texts. “Who are you waiting for?”

 

“Asami. I haven’t heard from her since New Years. She hasn’t sent me what to get for take out for movie night.”

 

“Should we go over to her? Check on her?”

 

“I think it’s better I go alone.” Korra glanced over to her apologetically, “I don’t want her to feel ganged up on…she’s better at kung fu than you are.”

 

“I have a black belt in the ancient and sacred art of _origami_ , I’ll have you know.” Korra smiled and dislodged herself from the taller woman’s arms and slung her kitbag over her own. 

 

“I can jump to my Familiar.” Korra closed her eyes reaching out in her mind.

 

“Use your memories of her. Just like I taught you.”  

 

Yue Bay and Asami’s doll legs kicking sand over Korra’s tummy as they giggled. Searching for guppies in the surf and hooting when Korra showed the young toddling heiress how to catch them with her hands. Racing Satocycles on the test tracks, rushing towards the high speed records and punching through, raven locks twisting gracefully from under her helmet. Asami holding her hand, and smiling her, accepting her completely as they took one step, and travelled thirty miles.

 

Korra’s smile broadened as her feet tapped hardwood floors. It dropped when she opened her eyes to the dark and lonely place she had jumped into. Uninvited.

 

“Asami?” She turned on the mattress, emerald eyes electric with hope, until she spotted Korra, or rather, her pony tail, long enough to tickle the spot she couldn’t reach between her shoulder blades. Korra’s heart dropped into her stomach as she looked at the way Asami shrank away from her, disheveled, cheeks stained with tears. “Sweetie what happened? Is it your boyfriend? Did he hurt you?”

 

Asami couldn't bring herself to say her name. It was too surreal. Every time she closed her eyes, she smelled the sheets she clutched to her lips. The scent threw her back to a week ago, Korra’s tongue between her lips, hands caressing her every inch. Whispering sweet, delirious, delicious nothings into her ears. Telling her she loved her as she combed her fingers through her hair and let her kiss her every scar that she had wanted to kiss for so long.

 

“Asami?” Korra was on her knees now, on the mattress, hands unsure and hovering, one aimed to push hair behind the heiress’s ears the other wanted to hold her hand. She did neither, instead gripping her shoulder and wrist as she trained her eyes on Asami’s. “Did he hurt you?”

 

“No…she didn’t. Rough me up or anything.” Korra blinked, hard. She hadn't missed the change in pronouns, but told herself in the light of her obviously devastated friend she shouldn't care. 

 

“Do you want me to cut her?” Usually these kinds of threats made Asami laugh, or at least smile, but nothing reached her lips. It was the most absurd situation, and Asami couldn't begin to explain herself. Korra pulled her into her arms and heard her mumble.

 

“You wouldn’t be able to any how.”

 

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

 

“I _can’t_.” Asami stifled her shiver as Korra fed her fingers into her soft ebony locks.

 

“ _What do you need baby_?” The heiress started to sob as Korra’s endearing slip of the tongue. She clung tighter, buried her face deeper into Korra’s muscular neck. It wasn't often that Korra ever had to give comfort, the last three years Asami had been everything to the Water Tribe girl, and now she was all too eager to give back. 

 

It wasn't long until the heiress was all cried out. Much of her tears had already been absorbed into the pillow, and as she collected herself Korra used the edge of her vest to wipe her cheeks.

 

“You’re not helping.” Asami whimpered pushing her hand away as Korra inadvertently flashed her what she had been kissing a week ago, but also a year from now.

 

“I’m not leaving.” Korra arched her neck so Asami’s head tucked under her throat, “Not until you’re okay. So get comfortable Sato.”

 

“You’re so stubborn.”

 

“Like someone else I know.” Korra reached for Asami’s phone at by candles that had been melted to within an inch of their lives. “I think we need some clichés right now don’t you?” She flicked off wax and up her music screen and then hit play before dunking her phone in the empty tumbler. Asami flinched as Korra dislodged herself, padding over to the fridge as she kicked off her shoes. She tore it open and the light was almost blinding to Asami.

 

“Aha, Rocky Road or Phish Food. And if you say neither - both will end up on your head. With…” She rifled through the first cupboard she saw, “Tuna in brine and…ooh picked onions. My favourite.”

 

“Rocky Road.” Asami croaked unclenching her fist and slipping the yo-yo string from her ring finger. She slipped it into her jacket that she’d strewn on the floor when she’d come rushing in New Years Day. She’d been a ghost ever since. Delegating work from a mattress.

 

“Was this a leftover from your real estate phase? It’s nice. Not as ginormous as the mansion.”

 

“I liked the view.”

 

“It’s miles away from your work.”

 

“I liked that too.” 

 

Korra plonked herself back onto the mattress beside her and presented her with her ice cream.

 

“This band is good.”

 

“They’re my new favourites.” Asami said it without thinking, and glanced at Korra to see if she was absorbing any of this. Or if her long hair was actually a weave and she was the time traveller whom had slept with her. She inhaled the creamy treat, not realising how hungry she was until she was practically licking at the bottom of the bowl as her mind wandered.

 

“I want you to shower. Get dressed. I’ll order pizza. Pick up a movie. Something violent.”  
  
“You don’t have to do that Korra.”

 

“It’s not even close to what you did for me, Asami.” Korra said quickly, but she didn't mean it with as a snap. “I owe you a debt that I can _never_ repay. It doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying.” She tugged the duvet back from her body to reveal her bare legs and blushed. Asami had just been in her blouse and underwear. Jeans really had no place in this bed.

 

Asami struggled with her silence as she watched Korra go about their apartment, with no knowledge that she had unpacked and built the ikea desk she was leaning on while Asami had been at work. At least she’d tried for four hours until Asami stepped in when she got back to the penthouse with their take out. Pad Thai. 44. 37 and a 63 to share. 

 

 

They ate and sat on the bed, watching Jude Law decapitate and slice into people as he took their organs in _Repo Men._ Korra raved about the action sequences. Asami closed her eyes for the romance scenes Korra had forgotten about. Before she knew it she was asleep. She woke for a moment, with Korra’s arm slung over her waist. She’d twisted to see she was face down on the pillow, her legs twisted towards her and her chest facing away. 

 

She watched her for a few minutes, gauging if she was really asleep. There was a tension she’d carried while awake since the accident, that disappeared when in bed with Asami. In her sleep deprived state Asami didn’t think about what she was doing as she leaned over and ghosted her lips at the scar on the back of her neck. She giggled softly in her sleep. Not moving much but with her breathing. Mumbling something like.

 

“Ngh ‘Sami that tickles.” Asami froze, glaring at Korra intently. _She can’t be dreaming of me. She’s with Kuvira now._ She raised a tentative finger back to the same spot and stroked. Korra only sighed softly, repositioning her cheek on the pillow. Asami didn’t want to push her luck. She placed her hand over Korra’s arm, keeping her there and rolled into a somewhat calmer sleep.

 

 

Korra received a text the next morning that made her jump right off of the bed. Cursing, but it was more with surprise than any kind of worry or anger.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Get dressed. Varrick did a thing.”

 

“Care to elaborate?”

 

“You really have to see to believe it.” 

 

Asami rubbed her palms on her slacks to make sure her palms weren’t sweating before Korra fed her fingers between hers. With her free hand she slipped into her jacket pocket, habitually slipping her ring finger through the yo-yo string.

 

She blanched to hear the barking of a dog in this bright white sterile seeming place. Immediately she caught sight of Bolin and Mako diving after it. Teleporting missing and teleporting again. 

 

“Quick Korra grab her!” Mako shouted.

 

“This is literally the best day of my life!” Bolin announced.

 

She tensed, as did Korra, as this huge golden retriever bolted for them and just as it was about to plough into Korra it disappeared. Asami twirled to witness the dog jumping on Korra’s back instead and licking the side of her face madly as she fell down.

 

“The puppy likes you!”

 

“Puppy? She weighs like fifty pounds.” Asami stepped back and stifled her laughter as she watched Korra’s mood shift and an instant adorable attachment the girl and the dog formed. “Fifty pounds of slobbering awesomeness.”

 

“You gave a dog teleporting?” Varrick howled with laughter as Kuvira jumped next to Korra to collar the beast.

 

“Well I’m not going to give a human the ability without animal trials!”

 

“What about chimps? Surely they’re closer to the anatomy of a human.”

 

“Have you seen Planet of the Apes lady? No way will I be responsible for that!”

 

“And yet _you’re_ the genius.” Korra smirked as Asami added beneath her breath. Asami felt most at home in this place over by the consoles, which Zhu Li and Bataar Jr. were perched reading the vital signs of the beast Korra, Kuvira, Bolin and Mako were currently chasing in all dimensions. Feeling forgotten, and slightly glad that she wouldn’t have to explain herself, she took out the toy in her pocket to inspect and ponder over. As she raises it to her face, she notices something, a reflection, a representation of a similar object on a screen. A live time code flickering in the corner and the red spoiler staring her dead in the face. Korra was the jumper to break into the box. Or at least she would be.

 

“Where did you get that?” Asami slammed the toy into her fist and found herself trapped in the steely glare of one Zhu Li Moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting near uni deadlines so I might not be able to post as often as I'd like. Could be more I tend to procrastinate a lot who knows.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hozier - Work Song (If anyone was curious about Asami's new favourite band)   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_oGM2o2y0Y&list=RD5_JUReD3QoE&index=18

If Asami had to imagine what her future with Korra would be like, she couldn't help but imagine dancing. To her new favourite band. Hozier. A soft and soulful voice that filled her with her memories of kissing sleepy Korra awake. Her fingers combing through ebony locks as Asami worked. Lazily drawing her fingers over her skin as she held her from behind, tickling just under her breasts that made it hard to concentrate. The morning of New Years Eve had been golden in colour, ice had no place there as Korra drew her from the mattress. Both disheveled in their underwear and sleep shirts, Korra brought Asami against her and swayed gently as her tumbler rang with soulful abandon. The engineer marvelled in the taught silk way her hair felt when pulled back into that teeny tiny knot, like a pomeranian puppy’s tufted tail. Asami had had her lips on Korra’s jaw as the Water Tribe hummed to words she’d memorised months ago, and the heiress enjoyed the soft scars that scored her flesh against her nervous lips. 

 

Her fingers touched her stomach beneath her vest, the long imperfection that surprised her a few days ago was a patch of silk beneath long fingers. Korra didn't shy away from her touch for a second. Although in a gentle motion she drew Asami’s arms apart, one stroking her dappled spine beneath her clothes and the other holding her hand proud loosely between their faces. As she waltzed, and rich light poured over them and Asami committed the lyrics to memory, Korra brought her head back to kiss the heiress’ temple and Asami brought hers down to kiss her throat scars. She remembered the state Korra had been in all those years ago. She knew every blemish that it left behind intimately. She’d tended them, changed their bandages and been the balm that had let her heal.

 

“They belong to you.” Korra had whispered, “You fixed me.” her fingers carved into Asami’s hair, “You’re my engineer.”

 

Asami responded with what she had always wanted to do when they danced together, kissing Korra fervently and ardently. Kisses that grew salty in the bittersweet perfection of that moment, knowing then this was how she wanted to spend eternity, with her and their precious memories. She thought of all the family reunions Korra had dragged her to, and how she wished more than anything they could have been as official outwardly as she had felt in her heart. Asami imagined dancing with Korra at her parent’s twenty fifth wedding anniversary in a year. She imagined dancing with her at a wedding of their own. Slow steps circling each other in perfect balance on the snow. Sheaths of light blessing them from above as they embraced and waltzed beneath the aurora super nova that had become of the southern lights.

 

She could scarcely believe how far from this she’d come in just a few short days. As Zhu Li glared incredulously, Hozier, Korra, their bright futures together had shrunk into a pitiful pea in the distance, encapsulated by an impossible swirl of unyielding ice on the shore of Harbour City. All that remained, was the pathetic, odd children's toy she clung to, and the dent it’s string was beginning to leave in her finger.

 

“Not here.” Asami whispered glancing at her lost love tackling Bolin across the room, having completely missed their new pet. Zhu Li took the message instantly, inclining her head towards the door and the pair slipped outside unnoticed. 

 

“Look I don’t know what you think this is but…”

 

“Can I see it?”

 

“Wouldn’t that…ruin the box for you?” 

 

“Varrick and I built the box together.” Zhu Li extended her hand and Asami unraveled her fingers from the artefact. “Did Korra get this for you? Have you tampered with our experiment Asami?”

 

“No.” Zhu Li looked up at her, but her expression was unreadable as the bright unbearable sun filled her glasses with a light that Asami couldn’t see past. The teleporter’s cogs were working in their quiet and modest way as Asami struggled with how to explain her self. So much so that all none of the thoughts and lies and truths rushing through her head made it out her mouth. 

 

Zhu Li inspected the toy again, thumbing it almost affectionately and instinctively slipping the string around her middle finger. She let it unravel, and with a deft flick of her wrist the contraption whirled its way back into her grip.

 

“Exceptionally powerful.” Zhu Li finally parted with the toy after an achingly long moment, to Asami, and a revelation. “Korra can time travel can’t she?” The older woman didn't seem to be reacting one way or the other. Her grey eyes flitted up to Asami’s and inspected every crevice of the engineer’s face.

 

“She came back to me. A year from now. I don’t think she knew what she was doing.”

 

“What did she tell you?”

 

“Nothing. She wouldn’t spoil anything.” Asami folded her arms over her ribs and darted her eyes back to the door.  She fought desperately with the urge to say something was wrong with Kuvira, but not only did a yo-yo seem pathetic proof, if she spoke out of time and turn something much worse could unravel. “You’re not meant to know about it either.”

 

“Are you?”

 

“She said she didn't know what she’d done until I freaked out about it.”

 

“How did you know?”

 

“She had…shorter hair. More scars.” Asami pursed her lips, feeling lipstick dormant and unloved still slick on the skin, “She kissed me. Said she loved me.” She hadn't known she was weeping until she blinked and felt the tear bash off of her eyelashes. She slapped a hand on her cheek to catch it. “She made me promise I wouldn’t say anything to her about it.” Her own fingers on her cheek were longer and colder than she was used to, but for that moment she pretended, pushing hair behind her ear she collected herself. “I think I should go.”

 

“Asami-”

 

“I’m fine. Just…wake me up in a year okay?” 

 

“An ability like hers is dangerous. Unpredictable. If Korra is as powerful as you say she is, there’s no telling the damage she could do.”

 

“Korra would never intentionally-”

 

“I’m not talking about her hurting others. Not consciously at least. There are high risks that come with this practice. Most importantly for herself.”

 

“I can’t think about this now.” Asami squeezed her eyes shut and shoved the toy deep into her pocket. She hated the way no matter how hard she pursed her lips, it would only make them shake more fiercely. She wanted Korra to calm them, but knew instantly that wasn't going to happen.

 

“Where is she now?”

 

“Other than in there? I don’t know. She left without saying goodbye.” 

 

And with that Asami strode back into the facility, mopping fervently at tears before allowing herself to look across the room. For once Bataar Jr. didn't have his head in a screen, he was being bullied in quick succession by Korra and the teleporting wonder dog. 

 

“What happened?” Asami tried to keep a light edge to her voice. 

 

“Four eyes tried to reattach Naga’s catheter and the big lug fell asleep on him.” Kuvira appeared next to her, admiring the sight. Korra, who had pinned the dog in the first place, had her cheek on its hind legs and opened her mouth in mock snoring.

 

“She smells!” 

 

“Hey!” Korra perked up. “I represent that comment!” 

 

“Where’s my phone? I have to remember this for his birthday.”

 

“You will not show Mi Maw Beifong this!” Bataar Jr. had a shriek in his voice and Kuvira doubled over with laughter, leaning slightly on Asami’s arm before teleporting to her kit bag on the other side of the room. Naga groaned a little as Bataar struggled, Korra mimicked the sound with an adorable growl of her own.

 

“Sick him Naga. _Show no fear._ Ugh not my face! No! My mouth was open!”

 

“Justice!” Bataar crowed as he wiggled out from the beast that was ready to go another round. Asami admired the scene from afar, getting lost in its whimsy and surreal oddness as she leaned against the bank of computers. Behind her a heated argument between Varrick and the brother’s was taking place of similar importance.

 

“Say you manage to get the ostrich horse _in_ to the machine, how are you going to justify riding it into battle?” There was an air of ridiculous in the lab that day that was contagious it seemed. 

 

Korra jumped beside her, quickly joined by a keening dog that suddenly took an affectionate interest in the tall human clad in red and black with the sad eyes. Asami bent down, and for the first time that day, Naga allowed her ears to be tickled without pouncing.

 

“She’ll be needing a home soon you know.”

 

“Can’t Varrick take her?” Korra looked back at the man, wildly explaining his three stage plan for teleporting marsupials and their various uses.

 

“Somehow I don’t think he’ll be a loving environment. I get the feeling the maid will see more of her than the Moon’s ever will.”

 

“Varrick’s you mean.”

 

“Sure.” Korra bent down and buried her face in the tuft at Naga’s back, “my apartment block doesn't allow pets.” Her baby blues glanced up at the heiress, melting the strange erratic beating thing in her chest cavity.

 

“You’re not just trying to give me company after my…parting of the ways?”

 

“I swear. I want her. She is my _spirit animal.”_

 

“Last week you said Nick Offerman was your spirit animal.”

 

“It can be two things!”

“And Moleman from the Simpsons?” 

 

“Asami please I’ll walk her and everything. She’ll just be another light in your gorgeous penthouse!” At that moment Naga flipped presenting her tummy that Asami resisted by a surprising amount to scratch. “Your dad never let you have pets, here’s your chance. _Make it what you want my_ _engineer.”_

 

Asami blanched at the memories Korra suddenly evoked. In that time Naga deployed a secondary assault of utter cuteness, standing on hind legs as if to pounce she placed her front paws on Asami’s shoulders and keened against her chest. Asami’s eyes narrowed as she spied Korra pushing at the dogs back.

 

“Look she loves you!”

 

“Alright!”

 

The day came to a close not long after that. Korra delivered Naga and Asami to their new home together and for the most part she was the perfect house guest. The dog possessed an instinct and found her way into Asami’s arms whenever she was feeling particularly forlorn. Naga would also sit vigilantly listening as the tall woman who now fed her would rant and rave about work, Korra, Kuvira and Korra, Korra, Korra. She actively avoided Zhu Li and her questions. Avoiding training wherever possible, she didn't know the woman and it made her feel worse thinking if she ever told her the truth she’d have to relive it. 

 

Before she knew it two months had skated by of routine and puppy love. Korra would come by daily to check on them both, but never said a word about their last night together. Varrick was about to start human trials soon, Bataar Jr. was the first to volunteer. Asami deflected an invitation, she had a convention in New York to attend and would rather not see how close Korra and Kuvira had gotten. Her warnings to the eccentric billionaire always went unnoticed anyway.

 

She wouldn’t have been able to stand the way Kuvira clung to Korra’s hand as Bataar Jr. gave them both a thumbs up and stepped behind the glass. He gave a gentle wave, before pulling on his tuxedo tie. 

 

“He’s got it in his head he’ll be the first teleporter super spy,” Kuvira laughed. Korra leaned over and kissed her temple.

 

“The fleet of ostrich horses and now him? We’ll be unstoppable babe.”

 

Zhu Li and Varrick muddled around the machine, checking, double checking dials and levers. Back at the computers they combed through algorithms with a fine tooth comb.

 

“I’m getting claustrophobic in here Varrick!” Bataar shouted leaning on the bar provided, once to tie down the beasts, now for him to grip. He looked up and winked at Kuvira, Korra felt her grip relax in her own and sent Bataar an appreciative smirk. 

 

“Kuvira do you want to check for yourself?” Zhu Li offered. The pair teleported to the console, leaving Korra, Mako and Bolin on the observation bench. Korra kept watching the man pace in his cage, seeing Kuvira was separate from Korra, he caught her eye and mouthed.

 

“ _Take care of her_.” Korra pursed her lips, studying his grey eyes and thick glasses, before nodding.

 

Kuvira jumped back and snatched at Korra’s hand. Naga keened and put her head on the taller woman’s lap. 

 

Varrick started the procedure, and flares of light began to surround Bataar. Not a lot happened at first, he was leaning, watching the arms rise and fall like breathing until something became attuned. Naga started barking as Bataar Jr. gripped the bar. His face slowly turning red, veins visible from twenty feet away.

 

“Varrick stop!” Korra shouted.

 

“No don’t it’s working. I can feel it!” Kuvira clenched her free fist in Naga’s mane as she watched Bataar tremble. He let out a sopping gasp, blood trickled from his nose, his ears, and before they could reconsider he was on his knees. Mako and Bolin tore at the power cables as Korra dove in the box and jumped him out. He was awake for perhaps two seconds. He slapped a hand on Korra’s clavicle and made her look at him.

 

“It’s okay.” he managed before he became unconscious and curled in her arms,  chin to chest, glasses askew.

 

Kuvira stood, fists clenched as Korra pressed an ear to his chest. She lay him back and started pumping on his heart, listening, pumping. It felt like hours waiting for a motion that would never come. In his suit and tie, bloody, eyes wide open, Bataar Jr. Beifong was dead.


	8. Chapter 8

Kuvira didn't cry, at least not while Korra watched, or as she held her. The lie that they had told their family was that they had been offered a research scholarship with Varrick Industries, an experiment had malfunctioned and taken the young man’s life. Kuvira let the families pain wash over her. Her mother screamed and begged and Kuvira couldn't bring herself to speak. Months had passed since Bataar’s death, his cremation, his ashes scattered over Republic City and yet Kuvira remained in this strange zen like state. For someone who was supposed to fall completely out of orbit without him she was completely placid. Korra searched her demeanour for grief or anything that displayed her pain. Every day that passed was a painful one, and she found herself hard pressed to take any joy from constantly being shoved away. She was a wall, she wanted dearly to help, to heal her as she had learned from the best.

 

Asami was unbearably distant too. She attended business trips after all night meetings alone, she came home to Naga and no one else, and after Bataar Jr.’s death coming back to the facility was unthinkable to her. Still, Korra had a job to do and despite everything she took comfort in it’s routine.

 

Korra jumped back into the orange-coved room, flanked by Bolin and Mako, still hot and hooting having pulled sixteen people out of a bus crash in Florida. Zero casualties, sixteen extremely grateful cheerleaders from U of FC. Korra rolled her eyes as she folded her modified electro shock glove into her jacket pocket. Asami would be glad to hear Korra always had it near her, in recent months, it made her feel safe. At least if Asami’s twelve years of Shaolin Kung Fu wasn't by her side, her 50,000 volts would suffice.

 

She searched the facility with a sweeping glance. Her eyes caught Kuvira in a domineering pose over Varrick, the man which slightly shrunken he was pointing a finger to her chest. Once their leader in battle, now she was too reserved to think about missions. She hardly left the lab, often Korra caught Varrick and Kuvira whispering in hushed tones. 

 

Whenever she did Varrick would lose colour in his face and Kuvira would brave a smirk. Malachite eyes cloudy and shielded. Korra placed a hand affectionately on her cheek and trained her clear blue gaze on them, imagining an eternity of pain behind the veil. The older woman softened a bit, raising her hand hold her against her. 

 

“Tell me what you’re not saying.” Korra urged. 

 

“It’s nothing.”

 

“And yet Varrick is peeing his pants over there.”

 

“You wouldn't understand right now Korra.”

 

“How can I understand if you don’t even try to make me.” Korra traded her cheek for her shoulder, turning her towards her. “A little empathy goes a long way.”

 

“The only way you could empathise would be if Asami was killed in front of you.” Kuvira’s voice had a mournful edge to it that was difficult to stomach, “If you walked her to her death do you know what thats like?” 

 

“Wow.” Korra stepped back. “Just wow.” She felt a flicker of the idea reach her vision, Asami’s red lips pale, emerald eyes glazed over unmoving. She felt her heart stop as it burned her in a flash. 

 

“ _I’m sorry.”_ Kuvira backtracked, reaching for Korra’s hand and bringing it to her lips. “I’m just so out of it. I feel like I’m missing a limb…He was the best man in my life you know? There’s not a moment I don’t think of him.” She clumsily tangled her slender fingers through Korra’s, ears still ringing with the image of her Familiar’s demise. Kuvira leant down and kissed the corner of her mouth. Korra shook her head briefly, until Kuvira parted her lips and began to speak again. “I’ve been working on something. Continuing Bataar’s work, his _dream_. With Varrick he wants to hold off testing it but…”

 

“How can you dive right back into that?”

 

“We got it right this time, people could save themselves, think of how much better this world would be?”

 

“It’s never that simple, Kuvira,”

 

“Korra, just trust me,” Kuvira squeezed on her hand, the facility faded and warm air buffeted the pair on it’s roof. Korra and Kuvira had been here before to admire the city, it was a pleasant place and Korra loved any place she could stand and point out the Future Industries Tower from. Were she to turn she could have traced the horizon and isle that was Yue Bay. However there was the more pressing concern of the machine thrumming on the rooftop. It was about a foot shorter than Korra and as wide as she was tall. It had half an orb on its top, glowing and raging a cloud of angry pink flaring beneath the glass.

 

“What is that?”

 

“We’ve made some adjustments. It should be able to cover the entire city.”

 

“With what?”

 

“Everyone out there can share in with what we have.”

 

“What happens when their bodies reject this? Varrick says they need the perfect host, not everyone is compatible. What happens when they’re exposed?” Korra could hardly describe the rolling storm of deep emotion that crossed Kuvira’s face.

 

“Then they won’t _exist_.”

 

“Kuvira this is insane.” Kuvira clutched at her chest, or rather her shirt pocket, steadily she had been cracking apart Bataar’s glasses within the fabric.

 

“So is this. Bataar’s ashes are scattered within the limits. When the energy hits them I won’t have to feel _this anymore. This’ll turn him into what he was always meant to be. Like us. Or h_ e’ll be wiped from time _._ They all will. _”_

 

“What about your mother? Varrick? Asami? If they’re incompatible?”

 

“They won't feel a thing.” The Malachite began to clear, and Korra began to decipher the mad swirling typhoon of grief behind it. 

 

_“And Varrick helped you with this?”_ Her free fingers combed through Korra’s locks, twisting, bringing their foreheads together and willing her to understand. “Evolve or _die_?” Korra had a hand on Kuvira’s wrist, tugging free, winding her fingers in the glove of her own pocket. Desperately seeking comfort as her girlfriend unravelled before her.

 

“I removed his choice.” Korra took a stumbling step back, she replayed the last few weeks in her head. The hushed tones. Varrick’s unusually withdrawn nature. She had assumed it was because of the death.

 

“Where’s Zhu Li, Kuvira?”

 

“Safe I swear. When this is over it’ll be perfect.” She leaned forward taking Korra’s wrist from her side and forcing her hand to her lips. “Everything will be okay.”

 

“I can’t let you do this ‘Vira. You’re not thinking straight.”

 

“You’re not thinking at all!” Kuvira teleported back to the console, flicking switches and touching receptive screens. Korra lunged, clutching her shoulder with the electric glove in a surprise attack. Kuvira crumpled, but it was too late. Already the orb was peeling open from its centre. Bolts of bright light came surging out. 

 

 

 

Asami had buried herself in work. Currently with Naga keening at her heels she tinkered with the prototype of the latest Future Industries hybrid engine. 

 

She felt the oxygen inexplicably thin around her, Naga barked, and her heart skipped a few beats involuntarily. She had begun to learn the tell tale signs that Korra was about to appear, and closed her eyes for the inevitable crash.

 

“Asami you have to leave.” Korra tugged her from the couch and her engine nearly smashed into Naga if the beast hadn’t teleported to the door, wagging her tail and eyeing them curiously.

 

“What the _hell_?”

 

“I don’t have time to explain, you have to get out of the city! _Please_.”

 

“Korra, Korra calm down.” Asami took Korra’s hands and her fingers skated over the glove, “Who did you use this on?”

 

“Kuvira. She’s trying to _share_ the ray with the city. It’ll either turn you into a teleporter or _erase_ you.”

 

“You can’t be serious.” Asami blanched, head whirling as she watched Korra dive for her purse.

 

“I don’t have time for this.” She then dove back and grabbed her wrist. They were in New York, Central Park, their joined family holiday from seven years ago was the furthest thing from Asami’s mind as Korra let her go. She didn’t think she just grabbed her as she teleported back to the roof.

 

“Asami _don’t do this._ ” Korra reached for her but she made a move to simultaneously step over Kuvira’s unconscious body and inspect the machine. She gazed at the ray and followed its course up, watching the magenta beam spread and palm into a dome above the city.

 

“It’s forming a barrier before it fills the air.” She swiped its console which immediately shut her out, “it’s the tertiary stage we have to worry about.”

 

“Asami _come on_!”

 

“Korr-” The heiress felt a hand latching onto her leg and it pulled her so her cheek collided with the machine. Kuvira roused teleporting them away from her machine and flinging Asami into the fire exit door. The engineer flew into action, aiming a trained round house for Kuvira’s head on instinct, she jumping behind Asami who felt her presence and kept her leg high and swinging. Her heel ricocheting off of Kuvira’s shoulder. Incensed, Korra tackled her, lunging and Jumping catching her legs together. She was bucked off, ploughing into Asami and Kuvira returned to the beam. 

 

Asami was wiping the blood from her eyes that smeared from her cheek and tugging the glove from Korra’s hand. In a surge of adrenaline and blood Asami leapt. Sensing it Kuvira dodged, graceful and disciplined, caught in close quarters with the engineer and her lightning emblazoned fist. They tangled and fought with equal discipline and skill and Korra realised with a confused satisfaction that Asami was holding her own against a supernatural being. 

 

Korra circled the machine in a quick succession of jumps. It was impenetrable. Korra laid her palms flat on the metal, feeling it shivering and writhing minutely beneath it. She aimed a few well aimed kicks at the machine the panels came loose. She fed her hand into the rattling seams and tugged. 

 

The beam started to shift and break, swelling and striking at random points in the city. Korra screamed but kept her grip as she felt blades of energy teem through her.

 

Kuvira was finally caught off guard, Asami’s glove found home on her throat. Jaw set, tears in her emerald eyes, leering with cathartic calculation. Behind each punch had been a memory of every kiss, every caress every glance Kuvira and Korra had shared and Asami was made to witness. Her strength came from her anger, and her anger from her longing. She loved Korra and was finally able to show it in this primal and furious act. Kuvira writhed and went limp, unconscious and beaten. 

 

All that could be heard were Korra’s grunts of pain and strain. She was trying to jump with the machine that fought against her. Iron split into shards and as she pressed it shifted. Asami heard it’s barbs penetrate her stomach before Korra knew what was happening. She ran for Korra, wrapping her fingers around the metal and trying to pull Korra away only she resisted. Arms around the Water Tribe woman she watched helplessly as Korra reached for the beam, fingers touched light and they were enveloped. Pink gave way to gold, and that gold was submerged with the pair in a dark pool. 

 

Ethereal light screamed around them, blinding and then it was absorbed, dissipating and trickling like snow underwater. Asami felt Korra finally relinquish her hold on the machine, but with the undeniable coppery taste of blood on her lips she realised that there was not much else Korra could do as they sank. Under the weight of the contraption they soon hit the bottom. Asami’s stinging eyes caught guppies, and the moon pouring over them under an archway and instantly she knew where Korra had taken them. She struggled to manoeuvre Korra from the machine, but she would not budge and she was slowly being crushed. 

 

Asami gasped at the pressure and began to choke. Her vision faltered and her lungs screamed for air. For a moment their was nothing but the girl in her arms, and some part of her was content with that. 

 

And then glowing almonds appeared above her. Blue, angelic beams of light pouring out of a pair of jewel-like eyes. Short chestnut hair surrounding her head like a halo, muscles sculpted and contracted, pulling the water around the machine, and tugging it up and over. Crooked smile breaking her face, she swam down to Asami, and placed a gentile kiss on her red lips, before disappearing in a flash of green and gold.

 

Exhilarated Asami pulled at Korra, hooking her arms under her shoulders she kicked madly to the shore. Blood stained the sand where Asami dragged her. She took off her belt and jacket and clamped as much pressure as she could on the wound.

 

Her blue eyes were open just a crack but seemingly dark and unseeing. Asami moved close pumped her chest until she gasped, lolling back into the sand, unable to lift her head or open her mouth to even scream in pain.

 

_“Korra please.”_ Asami pitches forward lowering her lips to Korra’s ear, “you need to get yourself to a hospital. RC General do you remember? Like when you had your accident.” Her shivering was slowing, and despite the heiress’ hand clamping tightly onto hers she was losing touch alarmingly fast. “You can’t do this to me _again._ You have to do this.” She bend her neck so her forehead touched hers, desperate to connect, “You do this and everything will be okay. _Everything will be okay… I will have you all to myself. We will be the endgame for all time, I promise…”_ She couldn't stop her lips from seeking home on Korra’s. She craved but a sliver of the happiness she once knew, and Korra had to know that _this_ was how she felt and for the first time, she said it out loud. _“I love you. Korra.”_

 

Thiswas the moment Korra’s eyes opened, blue and glowing for the first time in her life. Asami’s hard grip was returned and the sopping wet grit and blood they had been sprawled on was replaced by shattered tile and blinding tungsten lights. Again Korra went limp, but like white blood cells sensing disease the nurses, doctors and orderlies of Republic City General Hospital dove into help.

 

Asami hugged her knees tight for a while numb as she watched them carry Korra away. Only returning to cogent thought when a nurse tried to tend her own wounds. 

 

The surgery took hours, and thanks to Future Industries’ wall of lawyers Asami was free to watch every agonising second after her head was bandaged and cheek sewn up. Despite the time she still couldn't feel a thing. Not being family she wasn't allowed to sit by Korra unconscious and when she did rouse a full day later, she asked for no visitors. 

 

Asami could hardly bear it. She had given everything to Korra, and now it seemed she’d ruined everything in her haste. She couldn't go home. Not without knowing if that one sliver of hope had been snuffed out yet. So she kept her chin high, made no eye contact and paced through the hospital wards in search of her best friend. 

 

In the sea of styrofoam white and pale green Asami felt the blue orbs catch on her skin, the moment she saw her, pain and sensation finally began to filter through. She pushed the door open, but could go no further. Watching Korra raise herself as agony twisted her features, from lying to sitting.

 

“I’m sorry-” she began. Korra raised a hand to silence her. She made eye contact for a moment, and then lowered her gaze as if looking at Asami was too much to bear.

 

“Don’t…You were amazing. I just…” Korra swallowed as a myriad of things left unsaid swept through her, where to start and what to say at that moment completely alluded her.

 

Asami hugged herself tight, the sulphuric scent and bright white walls burning her eyes as she waited for Korra to continue. Worse was the flashing memories of Korra swaddled in hospital clothes once again, hair pooling limp and still blood soaked at her shoulders. The girl turned herself, wincing with her mouth as she clutched her bandaged wound with her hand. Asami raised her hands by instinct, to catch her, to begin coddling her as had become her instinct.

 

“ _Don’t._ ” Korra urged, toes touching tile. She stood, arching her back as if trying to crack a joint that wouldn't go. She stifled a whimper, and took one step. Determined blue orbs latched onto Asami’s eyes. She was caught in her stoic glare and couldn't help but tense. She couldn’t tell if she was furious, sad or just in pain. Yet she kept walking, and Asami felt like she should be shrinking.

 

“I know what you’re going to say.” She faltered under Korra’s watch, closing her eyes, opening them, looking anywhere but directly at her. “This isn't the time.” she continued with weak trembling lips. Korra took another step, leaning heavily on a dolly that any moment was going to slip and dump her on the ground. “That you just need me to be your best friend.” The Water tribe woman stood straight and found her balance, aiming her third step in line with her feet. “and I will be I swear. For anything you need. I just can’t help the way I feel. You’re just so kind and, and brave I couldn't help but-” The side Korra’s free hand graced her numb cheek, wiping tears she didn't know she’d leaked. 

 

Korra reached and grabbed the shirt at Asami’s waist in a tight fist as she wiped, the heiress was sure this was a move to balance herself until she spoke.

 

“Did you really mean what you said?” 

 

“Which part?”

 

“All time?”

 

“I… yes. You’re the only person I want to…”

 

“Want to what?” 

 

“Don’t toy with me like this Korra, it’s hard enough-”

 

And with that Korra put all her strength into her toes, and brought her mouth over hers. Asami was too tired to pretend like this was a first kiss, innocent and quaint. Her fingers combed into Korra’s locks hungrily, rosewood lips pressing to hers in a searing kiss. She felt a release in her chest, and let out a whimper of pure delight into Korra’s mouth. It was a true expression of all her longing and want. Korra reciprocated gladly, laughing against her as joy bubbled through her. 

 

When they finally parted, Asami’s breath was swept away by the way Korra’s eyes held her. Nothing else mattered. She was perfect.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might do an epilogue but this will be the last for a while. I'm serious this time. Probably.


	9. Chapter 9

“In the corner- _top left corner!_ Ga! Mako you suck. You’re a cop for your day job? That’s what you do? Seriously bro?”

 

“Firing a gun in real life is next to nothing like pressing R1 on a controller Bolin.”

 

“The game _literally_ aims for you and you still manage to shoot yourself in the foot.”

 

“It’s glitchy!”

 

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

 

“I didn’t realise you were this invested in my game bro.”

 

“No I think I’m actually gonna barf.” Bolin pitched forward off the couch and hunched over on his hands and knees, head spinning. 

 

“Not on the rug, not on the rug!” Mako dropped his controller to grip Bolin’s shirt, before he could tug he was gripped by the same nauseating sensation and fell to his knees. Blinking slowly, he raised his head as an ethereal light spirit danced into view. It was weak what was on its other side was both indecipherable and infinitely alluring.“Someone’s calling us Bo.”

 

“Then pick it up.” Mako sucked in a breath, and raised his arm as best he could. Finger tips touched the glow, and their apartment, games consoles, left over noodle boxes and fire ferrets posters fell away with the rest of the world. The brother’s found themselves in a dark room, no windows and a heavy door lined with pipes and pumps of a heating system. They weren’t the only one’s to be called. Behind them lay the struggling tangled forms of two teenagers blushing madly. A boy with dark hair and undercuts, and a girl with pale skin and half bun hair. 

 

As their heads began to clear, their vision adjusted to the dark, and spied the bed in the clearing of this boiler room, and a woman strapped to it and intravenous chemicals pouring into her arms.  

Bolin stood bolt upright without warning his brother, who bowled forward and flipped onto his back. 

 

“Mako it’s Zhu Li.”

 

Mako’s attention however was captured by the two fifteen year olds that Bolin wasn't facing.

 

“Bolin is it a solstice yet?”

 

“I used the calendar as Pabu’s bedding.” Mako was about to berate his brother for destroying the one thing they needed to keep track of when the boy in front of him opened his mouth and let a tentative and cracking voice cry out. 

 

“Who are you? What do you want with us?”

 

“Uh…god I am not prepared for this.” Mako stood tall in front of them, yet unaware of his seemingly looming presence that made the younger boy feel the need to match him.

 

“Get behind me Jinora.”

 

“Get behind yourself.” She retorted, finding her feet and taking in the room. “Is she okay?” She paced to Bolin, who was inspecting the contraptions that kept Zhu Li in her comatose state. 

 

“Her eyes are moving.” Bolin observed. Mako stepped up, rolling up his sleeves and checking her pulse, her breathing, lifting the lids of her eyes to inspect pupils and letting them fall closed again with a slick click. The moment he did the latter Zhu Li flinched and they all felt a pull towards her.

 

“What is that?” The boy fretted holding his head and resisting as hard as he could. His body shifting like he was teleporting into the same spot.

 

“Kai calm down.”

 

“You’re like us!” Bolin finally paid attention to the young couple, both glared at him. 

 

“Like what?” Jinora asked tentatively, heart thrumming in her chest. As if to answer Bolin jumped to her side. 

 

“We’re teleporters?”

 

“Mako we’ve got new members!” Boisterous Bolin expanded his arms and pulled the two, heads still reeling, into a near painful hug. “Our family is getting so big now!”

 

“She must want us to save her.” Mako rationalised, and began the careful process of removing needles from her arms. As he pushed back her sleeves he noted the bruises and cuts. “This must’ve been another Jumper. No one else would be able to pin her down enough to fight her.”

 

“Someone new?”

 

“I can’t think of anyone we know.”

“Wait we’re _teleporters!”_

 

_“_ We’ll explain at the lab.” 

 

“Lab!” Kai positively shrieked. Bolin let out a laugh but his smile soon dropped when he watched Mako prop Zhu Li’s unconscious body over his arms. 

 

“Relax kid. If we were going to kill you we would have done it already.” Mako jumped so he was in front of him, “You’re at the party now.” 

 

“You are terrible at talking to kids bro.”

 

With an extra hard Bolin-Squeeze the conscious foursome with Zhu Li in tow leapt into the centre of the orange coving room. They dawdled and parted, unsure of how to act next.

 

“Yeah Kuvira and Zhu Li usually deal with the welcome tour…” Mako began, seeking a place to place the woman in his arms and smirking as Bolin took to the task no problem. Flicking from pool to sparring mats to salad bar and narrating every intricate detail to how they helped a teleporter in training. 

 

“Oh thank god!” Varrick’s shrill, pain soaked voice emanated from behind the consoles. He stood, legs wobbly, as if he’d been crouched there in a complete state of entropy for a long time. He stumbled to Mako, immediately relieving him of his wife. “Mako, Bolin whatever you want it’s your the world’s your oyster- heck I can find you the world’s _biggest_ oyster, cover it in gold it’ll be the fancied seafood you’ve ever seen!” he turned back to tending to his wife curling into his arms by instinct, “My Zhu Li. _My moon and stars you’re safe!”_ was all he could decipher from his frantic, panicked apologetic whispers to her. Despite his slight build he was able to carry her with ease.

 

“I think she’s coming around. She called us. And some newbies.” Mako intimated his head to Bolin.

 

“-And this is where we practice deactivating bombs!” This snapped Varrick’s attention to what was going on around his wife.

 

“That’s impossible. Solstice isn't for another month.” he murmured. 

 

“Maybe there are others out there, I mean there has to be, only a jumper could have gotten to Zhu Li like this.” Mako noted how much Varrick’s complexion paled and narrowed his golden eyes in a way that could make a perp’s balls shrink. It was a way, he’d learned, to make sure that whatever was said next would be the truth. 

 

 

 

Korra spiralled in and out of consciousness for several hours. Each new awakening was a blessing that felt like a dream. She’d spent the day alone to practice walking on her own, so she could walk up to Asami and thank her for everything. Now that she had waking up to the heiress curled on the hospital bed beside her was a total culture shock. Eyes closed and a self assured smirk on her lips that Korra felt a surge of guilt about wanting to kiss off. She couldn't believe that anyone would walk out on that adorable sleeping face, and right then she hated whoever it was that made Asami cry like she had those weeks ago with the intensity of a thousand suns. 

 

She raised her hands, wanting to take Asami’s bruised face between them, feel the skin, absorb the moment before it disappeared. She remembered warmly that Asami wasn't going anywhere, despite her mistakes, having drawn her into chaos and mayhem she would still be there when Korra woke. Like she always has.

 

“Why are you hovering your hands over my face?” Korra jolted, rescinding her almost touch as Asami opened her eyes. “Hey.” She caught a hand and knotted her fingers between her own.

 

“I’m asleep I swear.” 

 

“Your eyes are seriously like luminescent Korra.” Korra covered them in response, cheeks howling red beyond the other deep colours that had already tainted her face.

 

“It’s nothing I was just…” Asami pried her fingers away from her eyes.

 

“What were you thinking?” It was asked in the least accusatory tone imaginable, but Korra found it impossible to make eye contact as she spoke. When she did she detangled her fingers again, and ghosted their tips over Asami’s healing wounds and bruises. Her brows drew together, she chewed her lip and on every word before she let them come out. 

 

“I did this to you.” She flinched when she heard Asami laugh. She set her jaw and shifted her look of concern to a full on indignant glare.

 

“I did this _for_ you.”

 

“You’ve done enough for me. You do too much and I can’t even protect you from the overspill of my crap.”

 

“Protect me? Korra I’m not your sidekick or your princess. I mean isn't that technically what you are Miss Daughter of Tonraq Chief of the Water Tribe?” she teased stroking her fingers against a spot behind Korra’s ear she already knew made her breath quicken and blue eyes flutter. “I’m just glad that I was there to help you. I mean you had a potentially deadly super weapon about to blow up in your face and your first instinct was to make me safe…So it’s not like you didn't deserve my help to save the city or anything. You’re welcome by the way.” 

 

“We could have died.”

 

“That’s the job.” Asami echoed Korra’s assurances from that first insane day. As she said it she felt the memories waft between them. Korra kissing her that first time, and second and third. The Park the mattress, the candles, the dancing in the apartment, _their apartment._ She drew her thumb over Korra’s dark bottom lip trying, briefly, to remember how it tasted and felt between her own. Nothing could stop her from reconnecting their lips again in that moment. She wanted it all. She remembered with a bittersweet sigh against her mouth that those moments had been and gone for the heiress, and were yet to come for Korra. Before she knew it she was printing lipstick on her throat and cheek. 

 

“ _Ah-Asami_.” Korra flinched, feeling her wound tear a little as her stomach muscles tensed and mitigated for the butterflies having a violent triad turf war in her stomach. Her hand flew to the bandage and thumbed at it to check the stitches.

 

“I’m so sorry.”

 

“Don’t be I just…I don’t think consecutive heart and stomach surgeries are covered by my HMO, you know.” 

 

“I know I’m sorry it’s just…” Asami blushed a little as she drew her lips over her ear to whisper, “I loved you for so long and I just wanted…” her confidence wavered as she felt her hand touch her ribs, “I know there’s not been much of a build up for you.” she drew back.

 

“I wouldn't say there hasn't been…” Korra’s blush deepened, “Why’d you think I kept taking you to Yue Bay last summer? It wasn't just to show off my surf game.”

 

Asami covered her mouth as she blanched. She murmured against her hand, “I bought that skimpy bikini and I felt like such an idiot.”

 

“The red Chanel one it was…snazzy.”

 

“ _Snazzy_?”

 

“I heard it as soon as I said it lets just forget it.”

 

“Never that’s burned into my brain. You’re just going to have to _deal with that.”_  

 

“What are you documenting my catch phrases now?”

 

“Your mom and I have a scrapbook.”

 

“Oh _god_.” Those two words sent Asami back again, New Years Day, early morning her ear against her lips as Korra moaned into her ear as fireworks raged outside the pent house windows cheering them on. Her muscular naked back arching in the sparkling light. Her strong hands tracing her every surface and expressing how much she adored them with just those two words, over and over. Her smile dropped, blush brightened and felt the urge propel her entire body back into Korra. Taking her head in her hands and taking her mouth beneath hers.

 

The Water Tribe girl tried her best to appreciate the sudden kiss but felt her abs sear and scream, as much as she stifled the urge to cry out all she managed was an agonised whimper as she clamped strong hands on Asami’s elbows. Asami heard it, and retreated bashfully. She fussed at the pain tears that had seeped from Korra’s eyes, apologising profusely.

 

“I can’t do this.” She whispered, half hoping the heiress wasn't listening. “Every time you get me riled up it pulls here.” she confessed. “And I know she tried to kill you but…”

 

“You can’t help thinking about her.”

 

“She’s so unbalanced.”

 

“Unbalanced? She tried to commit semi-genocide.”

 

“You can’t be mad at someone who’s not all there. Familiars ground us. If you were…gone I’d tear the world apart to get you back.”

 

“You’re gonna make us find her aren’t you?”

 

“I’m responsible for her.”

 

“Do you love her?” Korra didn’t know how to respond at first. She pursed her lips and felt Asami’s lipstick there, the taste the texture of it, she loved it so much she’d decided she wanted it there every day. She reached up and traced her thumb over Asami’s bottom lip.

 

“It doesn't compare.” She blinked, and Asami watched the last of the tears she’d missed tipple across her temple, “I never thought you would… and then you said _she_ broke up with you and I had hope. But I was with her and then Bataar… I couldn't break her down any more than what had happened already.” 

 

The engineer clenched her eyes shut, replaying every encounter, before Kwong’s before the craziness started. Korra had loved her, maybe for as long as she had. They had lied to each other to keep each other happy. As her mind raced and reassessed, she felt soft lips tracing her jaw, the corner of her mouth her nose. She fed her hand into Korra’s collar and kept her there. She turned them, Korra’s arms either side of Asami as she pressed. 

 

“Isn’t this hurting you?” Asami asked between kisses.

 

“ _So much_.” Asami grinned against her lips and pushed her back.

 

“A month.” She sat upright, tucking her hair behind her ears in an effort to control her breathing.

Asami urged. “In a month. June. I’ll take you on a real date. It’ll be tactful and memorable and safe…That way when I kiss you, you won’t have an aneurism.”

 

Korra tucked her hands under her cheeks like a pillow and couldn't help but pout. “That’s like four whole weeks.”

 

“I’m not going anywhere.” Asami arched her back like a cat waking slowly, her eyes shut until she froze, feeling Korra’s warm fingers grace her thigh. Tracing idle circles, and then stretching her touch so her palm touched the bottom of her hospital gown. She slapped an alabaster hand on her mocha fingers teasing the seam. “Korra.” She warned with a weaker voice than she’d anticipated. Korra’s fingers twisted, her thumb stroking her hand but still retaining her touch on Asami’s inner thigh.

 

“Asami.” The engineer could detect the smug grin on Korra’s face as she countered.

 

“A month Korra.” Asami reiterated, taking a moment to absorb her touch before rolling unceremoniously out of the bed.

 

“Where are you going?” 

 

“I have to go feed Naga.” Asami was tugging on her boots and rushing for the door, memories of their morning together pouring through her eyes in hot flashes. Korra’s beautiful patchwork body, hard and soft in all the right places, surrounding her in comfort and passion. If she went there now she’d probably destroy her. Oh how she wanted her to destroy her.

 

“You forgot your jeans!” Korra called after her, grin splitting her face.  

 

“Can’t come back for them. Too risky!”

 

“How come you can’t you wear pants in bed anyway?” Asami bit down on her knowing smile, turning back, flipping her hair as was natural when she was happy or horny and it came out especially breathtaking when it was a combination of the two.

 

“Spoilers.” and with that she left, smiling hard for the world to see. When she got in a cab she started to giggle, and then laugh, hard. When she realised how disturbing this was to the driver she could only laugh harder, tears poured from her eyes. She pawed at her thigh feeling the ghost of Korra’s fingers there. Present Korra loves her. Nothing else compared. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is epilogue #1  
> I ran out of plan for this story so the rest is kind of free form. Actually that's a lie I have a tiny amount of plan left but I'm leaving room for expansion.  
> I might post original work on tumblr when this is done. So far not done.   
> Comments help so keep 'em coming  
> http://hellorhogwartsfics.tumblr.com/


	10. Chapter 10

An odd purgatory had taken over the Lab in the weeks that followed. Jumping was still to painful for Korra, but Asami was more than happy to drive her across the city to Varrick’s facility. Korra’s lips were getting chapped, not because of the weather, but every time she looked at Asami she had to bite them to stop herself from kissing her. _Fourteen days._ She urged, tracing her fingers up and down the seam of the engineer’s calf with one hand, leafing restlessly though equipment receipts on the bank of laptops in front of the couch. 

 

There were certain things Kuvira wold have to buy to rebuild her machine. From certain places and if she were starting up her insane plan again. Varrick could acquire them no problem, but not only would Kuvira have to use a pseudonym, she’d have to make up a fake tech start up to justify buying them from the suppliers. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack as big as the world. Asami rationalised if they looked deep enough into every buyer eventually the front would prove false. Tracking her was another impossibility all together. If she truly realised how wrong she had been and was simply running there would be next to no way they could find her. Even her adoptive family hadn't heard a word since Bataar Jr’s cremation.

 

It made Korra’s eyes sting thinking of where she could be or what she could be doing, to her self, to others, with no one to guide her. She stole a glance to the heiress skimming through both receipts and Future Industries Stock holdings on separate computers, her chest swelled with a sense of affection and admiration that she’d bottled up for the longest time. How much worse could Kuvira get knowing that Korra was in love with someone else. She looked back, numbers and names and contracts buzzing and filling her brain and heating it. She blinked, lifting her fingers from the track pad to squeeze into the bridge of her nose. 

 

“Korra.” 

 

“I am not wearing my glasses, they make me look like an old lady. And just for screens I mean what difference does light make-” 

 

“ _Korra_.” She looked over at Asami who’s skin was glowing and eyes fixed on her. Korra hadn't realised she had hiked up her trouser leg, a her warm gentle hand had been stroking the smooth expanse of her calf without thinking. She swallowed, feeling her breath hitch in her chest.

 

“Oh.”  

 

“How’s your stomach?” 

 

Korra watched her emerald eyes flick down to her own mouth. She admitted silently that it still burned deeply every minute that went by, but held back the confession as she watch Asami’s red lips and worried her own with her teeth. 

 

They were locked in a gaze, unaware that Mako and Bolin were running the newbies through their paces. Jinora precisely and practically sliced through the obstacle course, whereas Kai seemed to be every where at once.

 

“Nailed it!” He crowed, “Totally beat you!” 

 

“You can’t win at the obstacle course with speed Kai. It’s about precision.” 

 

“How’s this for precision!” he jumped in front of her using his height to send her arching back, blushing hotly she shoved him so hard he teleported at random. Landing squarely on the couch behind Korra, who flinched out of her reverie. 

 

“Oh my god Kai! did I hurt you?” Jinora was quick to apologise and jump to check on the wheezing young jumper. Through his coughs and laughter Korra deciphered the pieces of his reply as her ears burned with frustration. 

 

“Me? Hurt? Never.”

 

“No you can’t win at the obstacle course,” Mako piped up, Bolin jumping onto the obscenely small couch between Kai and Korra and hooking his arms around their shoulders. Korra’s gaze may have been snatched away from her engineer but she kept her grip on her pale ankle.

 

Bolin mimicked a Movie trailer voice over when he added. “But there’s nothing stopping you from being the first to enter the _box_!” He teleported up and down to emphasise his point. 

 

“Bolin- Bolin! My doctor said no heavy machinery and no cheerleading Bo!” Korra tugged herself from his grip as he apologised profusely, taking the opportunity of distance to casually lean her back into Asami’s front. A knee either side of her waist. She listened to Asami’s breath skip against her ear and felt her hands settle against her hips. 

 

“Is this okay?” She heiress whispered, closing her eyes and feeling the soft strands of Korra’s ponytail tickling the expanse of her lips. Her warm breath pooling over the nape of her neck, Korra bit on her chapped lips once again and nodded looking back at her from the corner of her eye. 

 

They watched the Jumpers try and try without progress to make it inside the box. Asami found herself grinning madly, at first because she enjoyed hearing Korra’s laughter, even though it pained her so much her tanned hand sought her own and gripped tightly, but then she remembered the toy that she kept in her jacket at all times. The owner to their prize was in her arms, and between her legs, right then and she was all hers. 

 

“You know I bet you, you can go in there and get it right now.” Korra laughed a little softer.

 

“I haven’t jumped since RC.” 

 

“You can do it. I believe in you. Don’t let anyone tell you you don’t deserve what you want. Not even you.” 

 

“Wow you must really want that red thing.”

 

“What can I say? Red’s my colour.” She thumbed at her ring finger as if by instinct feeling the faint indent that had remained. 

 

“And what do I have to bet? Miss Sato.”

 

“I’ll kiss you,” Asami watched her ears glow red.

 

“Before the date?”

 

“Before. Today. When you get that red…whatever. In there.” Asami leant her head forward to press a kiss to the nape of her neck. She smiled against her skin as she listened gleefully to the half laugh half moan the Water Tribe girl emitted. “And you can stop biting your lips when you look at me.”

 

Elated Korra sat up and stared intently at the box. One by one everyone sensed that she was about to make a move. Wordlessly everyone turned to watch as Korra straightened her back, tilted her neck and took in that last shaky breath. Her jump sounded like a bullet from a gun and Asami flinched. Panic rising in her throat like a bile. She listened intently, everyone did, the silence was vast, overbearing and unbearable. For a moment she thought she heard Korra laughing. 

 

A yelp emanated from the live console bank. Varrick had taken to working from there, with Zhu Li, watching each other quietly and working in an unusual, healing, reserved and quiet way. Asami sat up on the couch but couldn't bring herself to stand. Kai and Jinora exchanged confused looks as Mako and Bolin rushed to meet the Varrick’s.

 

Asami felt numb. Colour in her cheeks faded and the worst swirled around her head like a tornado. The next three seconds felt like an eternity. Asami’s smile found her lips as she listened to the deft unraveling of the string and plastic in Korra’s fingers. That silken voice broke the air from behind her.

 

“Asami _go_.” As Asami turned she felt the air palpate and listened to the thwipping of the Jumpers coming between her and Korra. And behind Korra Kuvira, arms raised fingers clenched and aimed towards Korra in the air. Asami watched as Kuvira’s hands twitched and floating in mid air Korra’s body jerked in an unnatural and painful way. 

 

“Kuvira stop!” Mako yelled, lunging. 

 

“This is crazy!” His brother leapt two, it took hardly any effort for the older woman to expand her grip on their molecules. Asami finally found the muscles in her legs, they sprang, aiming not for the exit but for Korra’s kit bag and jacket and the glove tucked inside. 

 

“It is our duty to share this evolution with the world.” Kuvira spoke in a soft tone that filled the room and was almost deafening. Asami felt her muscles contract and her feet lift from the ground. A wholly disorientating and sickening sensation enveloped her and twisted her in midair. She heard Korra cry out her name. 

 

“How are you doing this?” Zhu Li screamed against her clamping throat. Talking back was nearly impossible as they twisted. As Asami closed her eyes she could feel a presence penetrating her mind, searching for something deep. The idea that Kuvira was wrong and trying to change it. The world began to spin and the memories, Korra fighting, kissing Korra, the panic they shared on that rooftop came loose and malleable.

 

“Exposure to the spirit energy has made me more powerful than any of you.”

 

Korra touching the spirit ray as it enveloped the city, Korra drowning under the archway of Yue Bay.  Asami opened her eyes a crack, frantically searching for the Water Tribe woman, until she caught the blood pooling and seeping through her shirt as she struggled and stitches tore. Their memories were being twisted and tampered with, and all the while Korra kept on twisting and arching until she fell. She hit the wood and didn’t move. Asami could do nothing but watch and taste the shape of her name on her lips until her aching body grew numb and felt her mind expand and lift free.  The instant before total separation Asami parted her lips to cry out. 

 

There was a total shift in well, everything. Korra on the floor let out a sopping gasp and inhaled sharply. A light blue gleam skimmed across the floor from her eyes as blood pooled around her abdomen. Twitching, gasping and bleeding Korra made a similar call to the one she made two weeks ago. 

 

Asami drew back into her own body as Kuvira’s grip loosened with surprise. 

 

Two beings stepped out of the light, shouts of shock could be heard, and for a moment their eyes were dark and normal. Both with chestnut brown hair and piercing ethereal blue eyes. One with that bob Asami couldn't wait to claw her fingers through and whisper sweet nothings into, clutching ribbon with one hand and the other clamped into a fist. The other had such a long intricate braid that dangled between her captivating shoulder blades. Matching patchwork spine scars peeking out of their collars. Short bob in her stolen bomber jacket, long braid in a tank top and cooking apron. She had finger paint sprawled along her forearms and the back of a red silk choker caught Asami’s eye for a moment. Her gaze roamed her body and gorgeous skin. It seemed the more time Korra had the more Asami wanted her.

 

They spoke in unison, even Korra bleeding gently on the floor was moving her lips.

 

“You are out of balance Kuvira. And I have come out of time to stop you.” 

 

Kuvira dropped her influence on the now mostly exhausted and unconscious audience and raised her arms to fight. She grasped at the air, and for a moment as the Korra’s stepped they arched forward as if they were being pulled back. But only for a moment. Kuvira charged for one and aimed a series of calculating trained kicks and attacks at someone who was fast enough to capture and deflect every single one. The two Water Tribe women took an arm each with one hand and trained their thumbs on Kuvira’s forehead.

 

“Be free from this power Kuvira. Live your life.”

 

The air cooled and Kuvira stopped fighting, conscious, eyes open and lips slack. Her whimper echoed, mad eyes becoming still as her abilities dissipated beneath her fingers. She pitched forward, forehead touching the ground as she sobbed quietly, grieving finally. 

 

The Korra’s stepped back, eyes dimming, blinking on their new surroundings.

 

“Katara?” The braid whipped her head around as though looking for someone towards the ground, grasping at her own paint smeared hands in earnest until she caught sight of Asami and smiled sweetly at her. “Oh.” She looked beside at herself. “ _Oh.”_ Her grin only widened seeing Asami looking so cute and confused, feeling her memories and reality merging so exquisitely.

 

Asami did her best to take her in from a distance, the faint design of her pendant, the crinklings of ageing beginning around her eyes. A tiny streak of grey amongst the brown. The flecks of paint on her cheek, a tiny new scar that marred her left eyebrow. The timeless way her eyes held the engineer, with complete admiration and love. Years from now, she still looked at her _that way._ If Asami wasn't so shell shocked she would have allowed the sob that was building in her throat.

 

The older Korra gave a giddy laugh, and slapped herself on the back of the bomber jacket. 

 

“I’ll let you take this one.” She gave Asami a pointed look, kissed her hand and blew it to her before waving and stepping back into her own time. “No spoilers.” Korra warned before she left.

 

Asami pulled together five words as her mind reeled and struggled with what she was seeing. _She is so fucking cute._

 

“What day is it Asami?” The heiress turned her attention to the other Korra in the room. She said nothing, taking in the woman she’d cried over at the turn of the year, who hadn't aged a day. “How long have I been gone?” 

 

Asami gingerly found her feet, testing the limbs that had recently been disconnected. She felt Korra’s strong hands guide her up into a tight hug.

 

“You’re bleeding.” Asami pulled back and held Korra’s face in her hands, unable to quell the stupid hopeful grin that was tugging at her lips, she looked down at the unconscious present Korra on the ground. 

 

“You can’t tell her what she did. I didn't know until now.”

 

“No spoilers.” Asami recited. She looked back, combing her fingers through her bob cathartically and enjoying the silk. She smelled better than she remembered, still fresh from their bed. She bit her lip as the memories filled her with warmth and an inappropriate tightening. She felt it was probably best if she took a step away from her before she had her way with her on the gym floor for everyone to see. “You know I thought you’d be taller.”

 

“Oh ha ha.” 

 

Asami knelt down to Korra on the floor and touched her arm. She moaned and twisted her face away and so her cheek graced the cold wood.

 

“Korra can you hear me.”

 

“M’tummy hurts ‘Sami.” Asami looked up to future Korra hugging herself awkwardly.

 

“Why are you so fucking cute?” Korra laughed.

 

“I’ll see if anyone is conscious to take me to RC. _Again_.” Tucking a lock of hair behind Asami’s ear and kissing her temple, she headed towards Mako, wobbling about on this hands and knees like a newborn baby moose-lion. 

 

Zhu Li and Varrick were already tending to Kuvira. Apologising profusely as her mind began to ease and clear, arms wrapped around herself the woman looked so small. She thought she had been making everyone safe. So anyone could save themselves. Varrick went about taking blood samples and checking her vital’s immediately, affirming that yes, her abilities were gone. As was her need for a Familiar and so her mind returned.

 

Meanwhile Asami took off her belt and strapped it over Korra’s wound to apply pressure.

 

She kneeled beside her after turning her onto her back. Korra’s eyes opened and closed as her jaw set and aching head calculated her wound. 

 

“Can we make out now?” she whispered half heartedly, twisting the hand that had been clutching the yo-yo so Asami could see her prize. The heiress cupped her jaw and pressed her lips gently to Korra’s. “I’ve got butterflies.” The Water Tribe girl drawled happily, “They really _hurt_.”

 

“ _Okay_.” Asami spoke against her lips. _Smeck._ “Everything will be okay.”

 

“I still get to date you in two weeks.” She whimpered softly.

 

“Fourteen days.” Asami confirmed.

 

“Ahem.” Mako’s jarring interruption resonated through them both. Korra groaned softly, fading slowly into unconsciousness. “Uh ‘Sami I can get her…uh you. Past You to hospital now.” Asami looked up to Korra biting her lip to keep in her laughter as the looming bleary golden eyed boy babbled. Asami stood and let Mako take Korra in a fireman’s carry. 

 

“She’s lost a lot of blood.” He observed by way of cop instinct.

 

“I’ll be fine.” Future Korra patted his shoulder before looking back at Asami. She reached for her hand and knotted their fingers. “I think I can make it back to my own time.”

 

“No.” Asami said it out of pure instinct.

 

“We’re together now. She needs you.” Korra raised there hands and trained Asami’s fingers so they curled into his jacket. Stepping close to whisper into her ear. “Wait for me. Just a little bit longer. It’s worth it I promise you.” Asami caught her tucking something silken and blue, from the corner of her eye, into her pocket. “I love you Asami.” 

 

Mako gulped but found his voice.

 

“You ready to go ladies?” Asami shifted away from Korra’s deft kiss on her ear, almost forgetting where they were.

 

Future Korra stepped back, allowing Mako to concentrate. Asami watched her, smiling softly but unable to fight the sadness in her eyes. She mouthed _I love you._ Korra blew a kiss before Mako, unconscious Korra and Asami arrived in Republic City General Hospital.

 

“Korra.” Kuvira’s voice cut through the silence. “I don’t know what to say.”

 

“It happened. It’s over.” She turned shoving her fists deep into her jacket pockets as she turned to her. “I’m sorry about Bataar.” Fresh tears cut down Kuvira’s cheeks.

 

“I’m _sorry_ about…everything.”

 

“I know.” Korra met her eyes and gave her a soft smile, “Goodbye ‘Vira.” 

 

In a flash of gold, and blink of piercing blue, Korra was gone.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there might be another epilogue after this. I wrap up a lot of things but I do like a bit of fluff so..  
> Let me know what you think


	11. Chapter 11

Music always helped Korra concentrate. She kept her iPod in her back pocket so whenever silence struck she never had to dwell on day dreams or harsh memories. It was numbing, and MØ crooning between her ears was a welcome distraction from her nerves and the pricking sensation stabbing through her abdomen.

 

Balancing a palm sized mirror on her desk, scrunching her nose to keep her specs from falling from her face, she arched her back in a way that every so often, the wire from her thrumming headphones tickled her shoulder blades above her silken bra. She tried her best not to flinch as she plucked at the remaining stitches with tweezers. Jewels of blood dotted the new scar where strings had been pulled out.

 

The pain had lessened into a dull ache in recent days, as if her body were willing itself to heal just for this night. She worried it would never completely go away, the more she pretended it seemed she could get away with ignoring the pain. Korra was glad however to know that it wasn’t going to rain tonight; humidity sent her scars into a frenzy of tingles.

 

Unfortunately thats where her supernatural senses ended when not concentrating. She couldn’t hear the key turning in the lock of her apartment door or the knock that preceded it. She mistook the vibrations she felt resonating through the floors into her tensing thighs as the cheap plumbing of the place. That was until a knuckle traced the strong arch of her shoulder, fresh and cold from the outside. She whirled and grabbed the wrist, blue eyes widening to see Asami blushing wildly.  

 

“Shit, _sorry_ -Korra I thought you could hear me.” All Asami’s embarrassment seeped away when Korra realised, and dropped her wrist to knot their fingers, habitually biting her lower lip and grinning at her softly. In her turn hair had slipped from her hairband and fallen over her lenses. It took everything in Asami’s power to pitch forward, push them back and take her mouth under her own. _We have a date to get to._ She warned herself. She couldn't help however the drop of her emerald eyes to take her in, her lingerie that peeked from her black pipe jeans and the blue bra that not only matched but made her skin sing. 

 

“My eyes are up here Sato.” Korra smirked. Asami blushed hard and swallowed. 

 

“How long have you been wanting to say that?” Hungry blood red lips found her smug smile but it was Korra’s stoic, loving gaze that held the moment. Her thumb stroked idle circles on the heiress’, holding their hands between their faces as if caught midway through a dance. Asami inclined her head a little closer, aching to close the distance.

 

“I thought you were going to buy me dinner first.”

 

“I have absolutely no issues leaving for our date right now.” Korra laughed, and kissed her knuckles before releasing her grip.

 

“You’re early.” 

 

“I thought I’d hit traffic.” Asami admitted a half truth, she couldn't help that everything she did that day was completed at a double speed out of excitement. She’d even tried waiting in her Sato Mobile outside for all of ten minutes before the urge to see Korra was too much to bear. She’d gripped her emergency key to Korra’s apartment so hard it’s indents in her fingers were almost as deep as that blasted string. Her patience, it had seemed, had dissolved now that she knew what the future held.

 

“Sorry you had to see me like this.” Korra took a handkerchief from a box and wiped the blood off her skin. Placing a clean gleaming band-aid over the newest scar with practiced hands. 

 

“I think you look good in the coke bottles.” Asami smiled.

 

“I thought they’d make me see sounds but now I guess not.” She disentangled herself from her wires and specs, lifting her shirt and pulling it on with a graceful roll of her shoulders. It was a white chemise, and hugged her arms tight and fell off her in all the right places. She fiddled with fixing the buttons nervously, smile faltering when Asami took to twisting the clasps at its bottom.

 

“Is this new?”

 

“You like it?” 

 

Asami smirked to herself, not entirely meaning to say what she thought now out loud. Unfortunately she was incapacitated by not being able to think rationally, and she did.

 

“If I say no will you take it off?” 

 

She watched Korra’s skin light up and expression drop at her outright flirting. The conversation stilled but there was no lull, a fierce electricity was passing between them, Korra took Asami’s hand still holding a button of her shirt beneath her own. The other ghosted the blades of her fingers over her lips, she felt the tack of her lip balm on the tips. Caught it’s scent on her deft breath and felt the memory of it’s taste pooling on her tongue. Korra pulled her fingers back and drew them across her cheek. She found her voice, soft and soothing and etched with that perfect Korra half smile.

 

“And if I say I hate everything you’re wearing?” 

 

Her cheeks grew hot as she watched Korra purse her lips and blue eyes watching her own.

 

 

“Up or down?” Asami’s clouded mind struggled to understand the words that left Korra’s mouth then. She had expected them to begin something other than words.

 

“Wh-what?”

 

“My hair. For our date. Which do you prefer?” Asami blinked slowly. Feeling the myriad of answers filter through her spinning mind. _Short, braided, tied up, my fingers combing through it, sprawled over my pillows and shifting ever so slightly as I bury my face between your…_ She didn't trust her voice. Leaning further back on the desk she teased Korra’s hair out of her tail. It framed her face and tickled her cheeks. Asami tucked some behind her ear with one hand and wiped her lips with her with her thumb. 

“You’re beautiful.” was all she could bring herself to say.

 

“Look who’s talking.” Korra let her hands trace the edge of Asami’s shirt at her back, enjoying skin and cloth alike as she opened her eyes to hers once more. The smile that besotted her face was contagious. “Beautiful as we are, I don’t think I want to spend the rest of this evening just staring at each other. Not that I couldn’t.” She rescinded her touch, heart skipping as she listened to the heiress’ disappointed hum. She grasped her hand and snatched her purse from her desk pulling towards the door. 

 

Their pace sped up, Korra’s building had no working elevator, and teleporting to the Satomobile outside felt like cheating. They were flying down the stairs with stupid grins on their faces. By the second flight Korra stopped, catching Asami unawares against her back, pulling her thighs to clamp about her waist. They used to race Korra’s parents like this on the bay. Korra loved the feeling of Asami’s crisp laughter rushing beside her face and tight grip on her clothes as she ran. 

 

The door beat open with a welcome gust of wind after a kick. She was almost disappointed to find Asami’s car waiting right outside. She quite enjoyed having the heiress’ legs wrapped around her.

 

The engineer pursed her lips as she slipped down off of Korra’s body, trying her best to resist letting her hands linger. She stepped around to the drivers side and launched herself inside, gripping the wheel and feeling the thick hard pumping of her heart wash over her. She glanced at her watch and checked she was still in time. 

 

“Boring you am I?” Korra joked as she sat. Suddenly feeling awkward now that she wasn't touching Asami. “Do you want me to Jump us somewhere?” 

 

The heiress kicked the car into ignition and the rush sent them both surging into their seats. She was tempted to speed the whole way, she pretty much owned at least half of these streets and knew her way around the police force, but even though her blood for her brain was pumping elsewhere she was still conscious of how much of a trigger a Satomobile ride could be for the Water Tribe girl.

 

She flinched when she felt her hand on her knee, when she stole a glance, Korra had her eyes closed, chin up. Asami slowed just that little bit more, and Korra’s thumb began to trace idle circles on the inside of her thigh. It was then the heiress knew she couldn't risk looking over into those perfect endless blue eyes of hers. There’d be no stopping herself after that.

 

They pulled over in front of Future Industries Tower. Korra paused her ministrations long enough to catch her gaze with a questioning one of her own.

 

“I’m not here to work. Trust me.” Asami breathed, agonised to have to tease Korra’s warm fingers from her legging. She led her into the building, the night guard tipped his cap as he watched smugly as they trailed quickly across the reception floor.

 

“What does he know?” She asked Asami, who seemed to ignore them both. She heard the guard bark a laugh and whirled her head back to frown at him and motioned with two free fingers.

 

“I got my eye on you.” She snarled possessively as Asami dragged her into the golden elevator. 

 

“Want me to Jump us to your office?” Asami gave her a somewhat exasperated and yet amused look.

 

“We’re going somewhere _you’ve_ never been before.” 

 

“I hear the bathroom on the 31st floor are incredible here. Is it true there’s a wine bar in there?” Asami only snickered and bit on her lip. Their backs pressed against the cold metal wall as they ascended. Spying the heiress’ palm flat on the metal beside her, Korra etched her little finger under hers and hooked them together. There was such undeniable affection in that tiny touch that Asami had to bare down on the lump in her throat. She tried to hold out for as long as she could until they hit the 32nd floor of Future Industries Tower. 

 

This was when she snatched at the hand and dragged her through an attic filled with ancient super cars and satocycles. Sato Family heirlooms the lot of them, and Asami couldn’t help but search for the original framed blueprints she had stashed up here for when she officially moved in to their harbour penthouse apartment. Asami marched them to a service door on the far side of the room. She shoved on the metal, a little too hard so she winced, and as it gave way she glanced back tentatively at Korra, as if waiting for consent to lead her up the iron staircase. Korra squeezed her fingers and smiled, just as nervous as she.

 

“This is already the best date I’ve ever been on.” She whispered with those tantalising mocha lips, holding back saying _because I’m finally with you._

 

Their footsteps echoed for a moment, and then became swallowed by the open air and soft soothing music. Korra stood stock still, enthralled to have Republic City laid at her feet, and framed by the lanterns surrounding the rooftop, complete with a Bar, petite dinner service and the Industrious, Beautiful, Ingenious CEO Asami Sato. 

 

“I hope you don’t mind,” the engineer began to babble, “I had this made so we could woo investors but we’re testing it. We’re the first people to come up here since they put in the new energy efficient air con-” She was cut off but Korra’s strong hand clutching hers. “-ditioning.”

 

“It’s incredible. Beautiful. I’ve run out of words…um…me Korra likey… _Shit_.” She cringed and blushed and habitually gripped the back of her neck and let her eyes roam the scene once again. 

 

“The food should be almost ready. I hope you don’t mind, I didn’t want too many cooks so its mostly just meat on sticks.”

 

“It’s like you’re inside my head.” She laughed, glad for the balmy nature of this night to excuse how hot she was feeling. She was glad also for the leading nature Asami seemed to take with this whole night. Korra wasn’t exactly the best with romantic forwardness, but everything Asami said and did just seemed perfect, almost like fate. She led her to a large flat couch, low to the ground, wide and gifted with cushions and a faux fur throw. Plates were immediately brought out to them. 

 

Asami noted how the meal passed much like their first in their apartment, Korra finished two portions before Asami had her first. While she may not have been starving and out of time Asami knew from experience that Korra couldn't eat if she were worried or scared. Asami took a sip of wine and glanced at her parting chef before she felt Korra’s warm fingers trace the crook of her jawline. She tensed.

 

“We’re not going to make it to the finale if you do that.” she whispered as the ability to care drifted slowly out of her. 

 

“What do you want to do for now?” Korra asked gently planting a moan-inducing kiss where her jaw met her ear.

 

“Just talk…maybe. I thought this would take longer.”

 

“I have a better idea.”

 

She ached to look at her watch, but Korra’s hand was already soothing in her own. She took the glass from her and set it down, tugging her out of the way of chair gently and pulling her flush against her. Hands lovingly between their faces, an arm behind her back, Korra swayed gently, resting her forehead on Asami’s cheek and smiling. Asami blinked and didn't realise tears falling from her eyelashes until they did. She was happy. They were dancing. She was also glad for that moment Korra couldn't see face, but she didn't dare move her hand to wipe them. She let the music fill her, and the moment carve itself into her giddiest memories. Korra’s strong possessive palm on her back, her own on the nape of Korra’s neck. 

 

Every time she held her like this she saw the future and their past. Waltzing gently, alone, with family, parties, weddings, dates early morning, Korra was going to be with her through it all. Her heart swelled as she basked in the brilliance of it, no more waiting no more holding back. Korra was hers.

 

“What did I do?” Her voice was timid, if her breath hadn't puffed against Asami’s throat she wasn't sure she’d even said anything. “How did I save us? I keep trying to remember.” 

 

Asami turned her head, her lips touching the Water Tribe girl’s temple as she spoke.

 

“What do you think you did?”

 

“I don’t know I was, I was in her grip and it hurt like hell it really did. And everything was getting twisted in my head. I could feel her so mad at me and then mad at you… for a minute some part of me was so tired with all this fighting and I thought you know what? She really wants it, maybe _I’m wrong._ But then you screamed…and I heard it and I was…that’s when I blacked out.” 

 

Asami took in her perspective for a moment, they hadn’t spoken about the incident really since it happened. It was almost instinctual for Korra not to ask about it. Spoilers had been drilled into her mind.

 

“There was another you.” Asami breathed out, “might not have been real or not but to me…” she held back just that little bit, hoping not to spoil anything by letting Korra know the whole truth a full six months early. “To me you stood up and touched her forehead with these beautiful, ethereal white blue eyes and told her it was time to stop…and she started crying and she was powerless. Then you went back to bleeding on the floor of Varrick’s lab.”

 

“Was it a spirit d’you think?” Asami pursed her lips.

 

“I don’t think so. I don’t know I’m not the leading expert on this stuff Korra. Teleporting. Telekenesis. _Molecules._ ” she mocked Varrick on that last word and earned a chuckle from her date, who had let go of her hand to settle both hands on her hips, and looked up.

 

“I don’t think I would have tried if you weren’t there. It was like I wasn't feeling anything. And then you screamed and I…” words couldn't express, she moved a hand to Asami’s cheek and touched that thin scars that Kuvira had gifted her a month back. The marks would be there forever, but Asami was proud of them. By instinct she reached for Korra’s collar and ran her fingers over the correlation on the bone. 

 

“We’ve earned these,” she urged, “they’re just a price we paid to get to this point.” 

 

“I here I was hoping we’d find a way to each other without out getting beaten up too bad.” Korra whispered with a wry smile. Asami returned it, inching forward, hand closing more assertively on the back of Korra’s neck. She closed her eyes, suddenly remembering it had been an age since last she kissed her, the weight of it pulling her as if by orbit. 

 

Alas, her wristwatch had other ideas. Shrill and piercing it bipped until Asami could figure out how to switch off the alarm. When she returned her attention to her date she felt a welt of shame at how worked up and flustered the poor girl looked. 

 

“Thirty seconds.” She urged, reclaiming her hand and turning to face the park that separated the tower from her first apartment. 

 

“What are we looking for?”

 

“Just watch.”

 

For a moment nothing. And then, green, gold, purple, blue in sparks and shooting fire up almost towards them. Korra reeled at the surreal nature of such a sight; they were at eye line with fireworks being launched at the base of the tower. They spiralled a twisted, forming impossible shapes. Hearts, stars, moons, archways. Reflected off of every window the inner-city had to offer as if Republic City were their shattered ethereal mirror ball.

 

Asami let go of the breath she had been holding for what seemed an eternity, everything she’d planned had gone perfectly, everything that was left was up to them. She blanched for a second when she felt Korra’s hand slip from hers. She turned to question it only her mouth was immediately set upon by Korra’s own bliss inducing lips.

 

“I’m sorry if this is rude and I’m missing your show but I can’t help it.” Korra mumbled against her mouth and stepped back, took in the continuing light show, before being dragged back by the heiress and the desperate ire in the hum she emitted before their lips met in a tender kiss. Hands knotted into locks alas they could only stay innocent for so long. Asami’s slender fingers found their way deeper into Korra’s collar to palm at the silken lingerie beneath her shirt. The Water Tribe girl gave a moan of omission, and rolled her shoulders to skate the fabric off of her taught shoulders.

 

Asami led her backwards, until her knees hit couch and she was lowered down by the heiress. She hesitated, all this completely new to Korra. So she stood straight in front of her, feeling her blush creep up her neck as she took to the buttons of her own shirt. Parting them one by one, smiling at Korra’s dorky nervous expression, and how beautiful she looked with her lipstick smudged on her own lips. Not that she wasn't completely terrified as well, she’d gotten through this before, and it was so perfect years from now Korra would still look at her as if she hung the moon. It propelled her through everything, that half smile, those admiring eyes, the blown kiss. 

 

As one display began, the other ended, and it being late the only light they now had was that of the stars and moon. 

 

As darkness began to set Korra reached out for comfort and Asami, grasping her fingers as they teased down a bra strap and let her shirt pool between their feet. Before Asami could flinch she’d whispered.

 

“I love you.” Asami couldn't help her hair flip respond, but she wanted her to see her face when she replied.

 

“I love you too.” and with this she pitched down and pressed her lips and body flush against her. Straddling her as they undressed and explored with their hands and mouths. They found themselves wrapped under the throw and cushions, having twisted into each other so much to find better positions, more perfect places to taste and tease and bite. They went from whispering sweet delectable nothings to literally declaring their love from a rooftop.

 

Korra took her time, greedily taking in every plain of the heiress’ body with her lips and mouth. She loved knotting their fingers together as Asami’s lithe body writhed and bucked against her. She was surprised to feel her knowingly kissing her ear lobe, or biting her collar or hip bones and driving her crazy. If she ever looked to question her the hooded emerald eyes staring back at her held a world of mystery and intimate intrigue. 

 

The sun was rising when Asami finally settled against her, legs tangled and hair splaying across cushion and couch. Korra lazily tucked the throw around them, heavy breathing giving way to tired giggles that faded when Asami buried her face into Korra’s neck and both found easy sleep.

 

They woke around midday, Korra’s stomach her natural alarm clock they both roused to its angry gurgle. The Water Tribe girl smiled as she watch Asami wake, adorable indignant, beautiful without the make up she had lost to passion and sleep. Korra grinned at her, flexing a little beneath her to stretch and tracing a knuckle against her jaw. She pressed her lips to the Engineer’s forehead and murmured. 

 

“Hey you.”

 


	12. Chapter 12

  
Korra didn’t know how anyone could stand it. The Sun beat through the roofs of every building she was in, dust was thick and choking and sliced at her throat from within with every breath. Every cell stood on a razors edge, the faint papping of gun fire pricked her ears and made her muscles impossibly coil within themselves with every beat. If she didn't know any better she would say she was standing on a doomed apocalyptic land. This strip of anarchic shacks and holds in Gaza would be blasted to atoms any second, or at least fall out of orbit and in its chaos topple out of existence. 

 

But she couldn't let it affect her, she had a family to save. 

 

This mission was different from all the others. For a start she was acting completely alone, while her skills were above anyone else’s on the jump team, a trait she had been assured by the Moon’s came from her exposure to the spirit ray incident some five or six months before, this was the first time she didn't have the support team appearing by her sides. 

 

Next there was the location, Korra had never left the Americas before, the tribes being located in the northern hemisphere in Alaska she’d only been to visit family, and her father’s abdication from the Chiefdom some twenty years back before their move to the city. Despite her abilities she’d never been one for actually Globetrotting, there was safety in the places she knew. And better yet people she loved.

 

The heat of this place was hellish and disturbed her train of thought every thirty seconds or so. All she wanted to do was find her target and get them out of here. 

 

This was the third and most perturbing different aspect, her target was no where to be seen. Korra could feel them, they were scared, and quick, impossibly quick, for the first time she was looking for another Teleporter. 

 

Suddenly she felt a pull, a scream of panic sliced into her peripherals and her attention was snatched by it. Focusing, Korra found her target had finally stopped moving. She rushed to join it only to be greeted by smog, fire and death. 

 

She spotted a girl shivering and clutching her own bleeding leg, eyes green, skin dark, hijab askew as tears leaked from her piercing gaze. Korra had never seen a child cry that way, most children sobbed howling for attention or consolation. Korra felt a stab of sympathy as she realised that this child knew she would receive neither.

 

Korra reached out to her, bending down, palms flat, entirely expecting the flinching scramble that the girl responded with. She tried a different approach, securing eye contact before Jumping, back four paces and then forward six. The girl blinked with surprise and began to speak, a language completely indecipherable to the Water Tribe girl’s ears.

 

She was kicking herself at that moment, remembering the kit Asami had prepared for her for overseas trips, in it included translators, energy bars for starving survivors and a teddy bear for scared children. She smiled at the thoughtfulness of the gift. The heiress always seemed to be two steps ahead of any situation, any time Korra returned from a mission Asami was adamant about learning every detail and plotting consequences down the line for everyone involved. Mad gun toting men received the therapy they needed to recover and become functional members of society, as did the victims of any trauma, courtesy of Future Industries Unfortunate Incident Fund. Korra nearly passed out at the gesture, joking that should the FBI begin investigating the presence of Teleporters in the western seaboard, once they interviewed every recipient the impossible-to-link-together jig would be up. 

 

This memory dragged her back to only an hour before, holding sweet thoughtful Asami in her arms and wishing the moment would never end. 

 

As she bent and the girl allowed her to tend her wounds with her tenuous healing abilities, she was filled with the memory. Drawing her finger along the cut it sealed before her nail, and emitted a soft calming glow that alleviated both the pain and stress the small girl was feeling. Korra smiled without looking, marvelling in the sound of her enamoured yet genuine giggle. As the secondary charge blasted the side of the building, these peaceful thoughts enveloped her for long after she lost consciousness.

 

 

 

Asami felt wave after wave of incapacitating dread and guilt power walked out of the elevator of her and Korra’s apartment. Newspaper clutched between her elbow and ribs, free hand rummaging through the impossible crap she now loathed keeping her keys from her grip. She jolted as flesh touched metal and dropped everything in a fit of frustration and panic. She thought of screaming, just for a short while, how  _dare_ anyone judge her on who she loved? How dare they use it as a weapon? 

 

She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, throwing her thoughts into her future, now at every turn it gave her such comfort. Even five minutes, when she walked into her home and would spot the crest above the fire place, the blue prints either side. The mattress that was now held up by a bed frame. The bedside table now entirely covered by multicoloured melted wax. And despite the entire wall window that might have left them open and vulnerable on the ground floor, the stunning view overlooking the harbour fed her sense of privacy and intimacy. They lived at the top of the world, and this was enough to get the heiress to smile softly to herself.

 

She loved drinking her coffee and watching the sun rise, cupping the mug dearly in her hands and awaiting the moment a sleepy groggy blanket monster Korra would wrap her hands around her hips and press her lips to the nape of her neck. Teasing the hem of her pencil skirt as she lets out a mumbled, 

 

“Hey you,” 

 

Already she could hear Naga waiting to pounce on the other side, tail wagging wildly enough to shift the weaker floorboards in front with deft squeaks. Asami had put off repairing them purely because she didn't want anyone, not even paid repairmen, disturbing her home. She dipped to collect her things, plucked the key from them and, exhaling slowly, pushed its teeth into the lock.

 

Opening the door she combed her fingers gratefully through Naga’s fur before the beast could floor her. Growling back playfully as she dropped her bag and paper and kicked them aside. Mimicking Naga’s barks and growls mixed with giggles and her own higher pitched noises. Suddenly Naga’s smile dropped and ears fell back. She jumped onto her own bed in the next room.

 

“What did I say?” Asami called after her. Naga barked, the air thinned, and instinct tugged their heiress’ lips into a smile. As the door closed behind her and she shirked off her coat, or began to. Strong hands curled into the leather and trapped her arms by her side. She felt familiar lips on the back of her neck, nose nuzzling her pony tail and a strange jarring sensation at the back of her head.

 

“You have the right to remain silent.” Korra’s silken voice cut through her and sent shivers coursing through her spine, “Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law.” She punctuated the statement with another kiss to her throat. Asami smirked and yelled.

 

“Johnny Depp!  _Laura Prepon!”_

 

“Oh that’s really mature.” Korra laughed and turned her. Asami blanched, arms finally free she grabbed Korra’s sleeves an pulled them apart to inspect her. “Thanks to Mako’s recommendation the Chief hired me right out of the academy this morning!” 

 

Her grin was infectious, eyes bright and hair pulled back under her cap she looked a picture. A blue shirt hugged her strong figure modestly, yet still if the heiress looked hard enough she could trace each muscle beneath from memory. The glint of a belt, badge and  _christ,_ that tie on  _this woman_ sent her mind in a wanton frenzy, already imagining the future, and those tight slacks thrown over the slowly oscillating ceiling fan.

 

“You’re a  _policewoman_!”

 

“ _Officer_.” Korra corrected.

 

“You’re a  _policewomanofficer!_ ” Korra snickered, sliding her palms from Asami’s arms to her shoulder blades, pulling her into a giddy, greedy kiss. 

 

“They swear me in next Sunday will you come?” she asked breathlessly, adjusting her cap so she could press her forehead against the engineer’s.

 

“No my other girlfriend wants me that day. Or wait is it my secret husband? Hmm.” Her mouth twisted in a faux completive look, smirking all the while as Korra pouted, “Of course I will you  _dolt!”_ Asamicuppedher head to kiss her, but became immediately distracted by something familiar, or lack thereof, not ticking her knuckles. Tentatively she grasped at air, immediately unable to identify the pit that had formed without warning in her stomach.

 

“That’s the other thing.” Korra whispered biting her lip barely able to contain her excitement, she tore off her hat and combed her fingers through that adorable puffy ponytail, setting free the bob Asami had not seen for five months. “It was kind of cathartic, impulse thing, new job, new look.” 

 

Asami’s gaze turned into a full on guarded glare. 

 

“Do you like it?” Korra asked, brows drawing together as Asami readdressed the Timeline of Many Korra’s in her mind. How long did she have left with her before she time travelled for the first time? How long would she be gone? Sure she came back, and ten to twenty years from now they would be together, give a take a few years depending on how well Korra would age and learn to control her new insane time travelling abilities. But how long in-between then? How long would she have to wait for her to figure it out? How on Earth could she bear it now that she’d had her Korra thirst quenched and then without warning she would be taken from her?

 

“Asami you’re freaking out more than I thought you’d be.” 

 

It had been a long time since she had to lie to Korra about what she was feeling, but it seemed the reason was still just as relevant. She blinked, hard, willing the tears forming behind her eye balls to hold off until it was too late. For now all she could think was how much she wanted Korra to stay with her now.

 

“Do you have another one of those uniforms?” she breathed, her voice tight.

 

“I have a spare shirt but I think I have to buy the-” she stopped when she felt Asami’s hand paw into those short silken tresses and listened to the audible tremble in her breath. As much fear as the new look had given the heiress, it also gifted her with a stunning nostalgic spike of arousal.

 

“Because I want to tear this one off of you right now.” Muscle memory is truly a wonderful thing, as Korra’s mind stopped to savour Asami’s sudden deep white hot kiss her hands found her thighs and raised her legs so she straddled her. All without entirely meaning to. 

 

She jumped them to the bed, not that Asami noticed of felt it through her closed eyes as her fingers desperately tangled with Korra’s black pipe tie. She’d lost her jacket in the fray, and her thin chemise was no challenge for Korra’s eager tearing, her uniform however was proving to be tougher than the engineer anticipated. Without breaking the kiss she fondled madly with the buttons, Korra helping from the bottom as she concentrated on reaching access to that glorious chest. When she pulled the navy blue apart however, she gave an indignant sigh at the vest underneath and the sports bra beneath that. 

 

“Too many clothes!” she seethed, feeling Korra rip her skirt past her hips, knees and ankles, losing interest in her lower half for the moment she pitched up to reclaim Asami’s gloss smeared mouth. She paused after a long languid and lazy kiss, a little more of her mind returning to her and also the to do list she had set for herself today.

 

“I uh, actually wanted to talk to you about some things…’Sami, the  _future_  to be exact.” Asami blanched leaning back, taking comfort from the jarring statement by carding her fingers gently through her girlfriend’s hair. She took stock of her position, bra exposed, her own hand under Korra’s slacks pawing at her perfect, as yet unscarred ass. She parted spongey, eager lips to speak hoping her voice would hold out.

 

“Are you breaking up with me?” Korra’s eyes widened in horror and she nearly yelled.

 

“ _No!”_ Asami smiled at her, before pulling her down and kissing her gently, and tracing those kisses to her ear, taking her lobe between her teeth knowing the Water Tribe girl’s eyes were rolling back into her head, before whispering.

 

_“Then shut up and eat me.”_ Whatever it was could wait, the future was coming, and Asami wanted to hold off on living it with everything she held dear. Korra didn't need telling twice, she was good like that. 

 

Eventually Asami’s eyes drew away from the slacks on the ceiling fan, the red of her ruined skirt stuffed between the mattress and the bed frame down until, had her eyes been able to remain open, she would have seen Korra’s palm splayed over the engineer’s heart like a pleasure detector and her head buried before her writhing hips. Mouth shaped bruises already forming between Asami’s left knee and the crux of her hip. 

 

She came embarrassingly fast after that, broken pieces of Korra’s name pouring from pale pink lips. As she relished in her after shocks, Korra repositioned her arms beneath her back, loving the touch of her skin as she bit lightly, kissing her abdomen and slowly bringing herself level with the heiress. Pausing only when she felt Asami’s hand cup her cheek and slip into her hair, gentler than the hard tugs she had been giving it earlier. Eyes met, Korra watched her mouth smirk and felt her heart swell with affection as Asami drawled breathlessly.

 

“What’s the punishment for trying to seduce an officer of the law?”

 

“I think it’s a fine.” Korra blushed, struggling to remember any of her training in the wake of this absolute goddess. 

 

“Like a parking ticket?”

 

“Don’t say it.”

 

“‘Cause you got  _fine_ written all over you.” 

 

“Now I have to punish you.” Korra laughed, tugging her close, only Asami flipped them, hands on her wrists, pinning her superior muscle weight using a calculated hold and kung fu grip. 

 

“Worth every penny.” she hummed before claiming Korra’s lips with her teeth. 

 

 

Korra disentangled herself from the bed, smirking watching Asami spiral into blissful post coital sleep despite the fact the sun was only just setting. Padding to the kitchen as quickly as she could, not wanting to be long or loud to disturb her, but of course failed. Stumbling, surprised by Asami’s bag that never usually landed any where other than the hat rack. She surveyed the forming floordrobe with a bemused gaze, while her new uniform had warranted some respect, perhaps 0.99% of Asami’s expensive and fashionable wardrobe had been torn to pieces. If Korra didn't know there was an entire room of similarly delicate clothing back at the heiress’ mansion she would have felt guilty.

 

She spied the newspaper tucked beneath her foot, plucked at it and aimed to place it beside Asami’s bedside for her to read before sun rise, only the headline caught her eye. 

 

_FI Stocks Plummet As Sato’s Sordid Affair Confirmed True._

 

On one side of the article, row upon row of statistics and percentages and the other were photographs taken through zoom lens. She clapped a hand over her mouth as she traced her eyes over her near moonlit form. She thanked the stars that they had kept their bathing suits on at the bay. Unfortunately that didn't hide the fact that they were clearly making out, the engineer straddling Korra and then being pushed into the sand.

 

She pulled on her robe, suddenly chilled to her bones as she read and re read the article. She had been so comfortable taking her next step with Asami, her best friend turned lover, it certainly didn't feel wrong in any way. And yet Asami had shouldered this ignorance and close minded judgement without her. 

 

“Come back to bed…” she couldn't smile as Asami’s sleepy pillow muffled whimper reached her ears. “Take that stupid robe off you look so much better in your birthday suit.” 

 

She allowed a laugh and turned kissing the first part of her girlfriend she could reach. Asami flinched as newspaper crunched against her skin, still wrapped in Korra’s fist. 

 

“Korra what is that?”

 

“Nothing just, you know padding for Naga’s litter box.”

 

“Naga is literally the only dog in the world that can let herself out. And she's a dog.” She sat up and flattened the page. Jaw set, emerald eyes narrowed as she looked at the words she could recite from memory by now. “You know I don’t care what some newspaper thinks of me.”

 

“It’s not a newspaper though is it? It’s a broadsheet, it’s a Financial Times. And it’s describing the downfall of your company. The company you’ve been rebuilding for  _years._ ”

 

“It’s nothing, not as bad as the papers make it out to be. If I can bring Future Industries back from a fraud scandal, the best relationship I’ve ever had should be no problem… I’m rich I can do what I want that includes you.”

 

“God I feel so much less sordid now.”

 

“Do you remember when we met?” 

 

“Yue Bay, our families camped near each other when we were six.”

 

“You tripped me on your way to your dam and I got a face full of sand.” 

 

“Oh  _crap._ ” Korra cringed remembering, “I said sorry right? I’m sorry, you know. Sixteen years too late.” Asami laughed. Sitting up and wrapping her arms around her waist.

 

“You picked me up, made sure I was okay and you asked me if I wanted to help build it. By sunset you must’ve had every kid on the Bay building that thing. Everybody there loved you. I loved you the most,” Her rouge lips touched where Korra’s jaw joined her ear, chin balancing on Korra’s tense shoulder. “You’re brave and inspiring, I have loved you for all this time.”

 

“You think if it’s not too much trouble for your company, you could love me for a bit longer.” she let her fingers glide over Asami’s wrist, unable then to identify the sulphur assaulting her senses, she could barely feel it. Korra closed her eyes, numbly processing the precipice she was preparing to step off.

 

“Korra.” Asami stiffened behind her.

 

“Rest of our lives maybe.” 

 

“ _Korra.”_ She finally opened her eyes, wincing blinded by the spirit beckoning her away, it pulled at her peripherals, and sucked with it her courage. 

 

“Asami…I,” her arms loosened from her vice like grip slowly. 

 

“It’s okay.” she managed, “just promise me you’ll come back.”

 

Korra couldn't say anything else, she reached for the portal and read it silently. Hot. Sandy. Tough. Desperate. Whatever pieces of her heart not being held by Asami went out to it. 

She dressed as though in a trance, hating every second. Wishing she had the will to uncurl her fingers from the silken trinket she’d snatched from her sports gear and show it to her girlfriend. But no, she stuffed it in her cargo pants, and tugged her white shirt over her head. 

 

“Do you think I’ll need money? I can’t tell where I’m going.” She stepped past the kit Asami had prepared for her perhaps half a dozen times, it had completely slipped her gaze and the engineer couldn't speak. 

 

Asami was swept in the fever dream like state of it all. It was like watching Clark Kent turn into Superman. She bit her lip hard to keep from weeping, clutching the bed sheet to her chest to keep from shaking too hard.  _Oh the places you’ll go,_ she thought. 

 

“The Inauguration…” Asami began.

 

“It’s in a week, I’ll be back before then.”

 

“ _But if you’re not._ ”

 

“I will be. In and out. No time.I’ll meet you at Kwong’s tomorrow morning. 10am, so you’ll get a lie in.” She assured herself more than anything. Doing something impossible and reckless might just be the boost she needed to ask Asami what she needed to. Korra ruffled her new cropped hair and patted the yuans and trinkets in her pockets, pulled the tongue of her boots high and opened her arms to present her visibly hard body to her girlfriend.

 

“Runway ready?” she forced a smile, which Asami returned with equal tension. Swallowing she replied. 

 

“Stunning.” Korra eased a little, returning her attention back towards the light. Already she could feel the sun. Asami wasn't sure how she could, or why she even said it, but she couldn't stop herself. She couldn't let her leave without a real “Goodbye Officer Korra.”

 

Even from the side she caught the smirk in Korra’s eyes, She turned her ear further towards her and corrected with as calm and gentle a voice as she could muster.

 

“That’s goodbye Officer  _Sato.”_

 

Green and gold, and once again, nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make the world go round, and this fic going apparently  
> I think I have a sequel, its loosely planned in my head  
> I'm thinking something with Hiroshi and the FBI maybe I don't know maybe not  
> NO SPOILERS


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> angst angst Angst!

 

Of course she’d held hope for those first few mornings, the clock hand swinging to twelve came a slap to her face. Quietly she’d collected herself, her things her now empty coffee cup. _Forever Girl,_ scrawled on the card of the one she left behind. Silently she marched back to their apartment. Ignoring the patter of rain sprinkling on her Armani blazer. Pursing red lips, clenching her fingers around her keys. She stripped, her bag, her jacket, her hair ties so meticulously braided, even her shoes, bright red pumps that she knew Korra’s ears could identify after a single step in a crowded room. Keys on the bed, Naga cocked her head as one half of the humans she loved most dear, specifically the tall one who fed her, placed her hands on the apartment harbour side window. A thin layer of ice separating the heiress from the world and the sheer drop below her feet, now poised on tippy toes.

 

Asami pressed her forehead to the cool window looking out into the world. Rain tap tap _tapping_ against her brain expectantly, as if waiting for her to start thinking again. Aside from the obvious; once again Korra was gone. She’d fucked her and left her for the second time. She could still feel the ghosts of teeth marks and bruises along her inner thigh, the hickey on her throat. The lingering stiffness in the way she held her hips. Asami missed it.

 

Naga let out a keening whine from the bed, if Asami didn’t know any better she’d think the creature was trying to show concern. Maybe trying to assure her that everything would be okay. Eventually. 

 

But the fact of the matter was that Asami’s timeline for Korra had run out, she was faced with an abysmal abyss of no answers and shady future that granted every one else in the world had. She supposed it was that far future Korra that enticed her senses. Poster paint still clinging to her peripherals, that half smile, starting to crinkle, ageing in a way that was turning the Water Tribe woman into a delicious and fine vintage. All for her.

 

She closed her eyes and remembered her past, monster blanket Korra would be curling her fingers around her stomach right about now. Whispering gleefully into her hair. Kissing wherever she was exposed with the most chaste and gentlest care. She let the vertigo wash over her, a veil of madness crossed with her desperate need to connect. The cold streamed into her mind and stilled it, but this didn't stop Asami from carrying on the delusion with the absentmindedness of her own lips.

 

“ _Hey you.”_

 

The jingle of keys jolted her out of her entropy.

 

Asami whirled, wiping tears, straightening her shirt and hoping to pull the misery she had been leaking back into its invisible hiding place within her chest. Alas in front of Opal, it was difficult to hide. 

 

It would taste a lie to call it a coincidence that Opal Beifong found herself under the employ of Asami Sato. She’d hoped to be subtle and tactful by offering the young woman an internship four months ago, based on her impressive dissertation on the technological advancements of aeronautics in the next ten years. Her designs were graceful, powerful and efficient, three traits the new Future Industries valued, and Asami had also noted the way Opal had made no mention of using her ideas for military purposes. Surprising giving the backgrounds of her brother and adoptive sister; both had been military. Kuvira a promising young captain before her change, and Bataar a brain for the Research and Development of the covert. It made sense that the pair would seek private education from the likes of Varrick in order to better protect and serve their country. To the best of their abilities at least.

 

Asami understood that it had been a long and tiring conflict that split the Beifong family, while it was universally accepted that any Beifong was brilliant, it made for all out war at the christmas table were anyone to take up the issue of national defence and their role in it. 

 

She never admitted out loud that she wanted to keep tabs on them, especially in front of Korra. Opal was a competent assistant, and with her own inside knowledge of the Jumpers and their mission, Asami was glad she had another person she didn’t have to lie to. Asami might even go far as to say she was a friend. She was actually, more than she was an assistant. Asami had never had one before, inviting her to dinner with the Jumpers upon hiring her. Korra had called her _cute_ for thinking that way and immediately set about igniting the flame that hit Bolin’s eyes the moment he saw her. Clambering over the table ever so ungracefully to sit next her own girlfriend, allowing Opal to scoot closer to the blushing body builder.

 

Korra was good like that, she could see pain and the pieces that could be used to replace it. Opal and Bolin fit together seamlessly, and even though nothing could ever soothe the ache that came with losing a brother, these new friends Asami had inadvertently surrounded her with actually allowed her to heal some. 

 

“How do you do it?” Korra had mused.

 

“What?” Asami’s breath skipped remembering the way Korra traced her fingers along her jaw as deep blue eyes inspected her.

 

“Handle everything so perfectly?” 

 

The heiress sucked in a breath as she focused herself on her _now_ and looked up, watching as the chatty emerald-eyed girl went about her routine of laying the latest engineering magazines and FI stock options on Asami’s desk. 

 

“Who were you talking to?” Turning to her, her smile dropped at the watery gaze Asami couldn't wipe away. She glanced down at the magazines and shuffled their covers so the more pleasing articles were face up. “You don’t want to listen to a bunch of homophobic old turds stuffed in Armani do you?”

 

Asami laughed, the smile not reaching her eyes. 

 

“I wish it were that.” She mumbled, feeding her fingers into her own hair and pacing to her purse in search of war paint, or any other form of safety blanket. “Korra was supposed to meet me today.”

 

“I thought you said you were meeting her yesterday?”

 

“Then too.” Sato couldn't keep the bitter edge from tainting her voice. Unable to raise her eyes she let Opal’s soothing words wash over her.

 

“I’m sure she won’t be held up for long, I mean she’s a teleporter, as soon as she’s done _poof_ she’s here with you.” 

 

“You’re probably right, how much trouble can she get in with Mako and Bolin by her side.” Opal froze for a moment, Asami saw the unspoken truth that flittered between them. “They’re not with her are they?”

 

“Bolin hasn’t had a calling for two weeks.”

 

“And Mako?”

 

“He was in their apartment all last night. When I, um, had dinner there.” Opal blushed as she watched Asami’s expression fall. She could hardly feel the tight hug Opal suddenly gifted her with. She was perhaps one of the few people who knew this kind of ardent pain. Except hers only lasted hours at most, not days.  

 

Asami felt her tears pearl on her lashes and drip, if she were blinking she certainly couldn't feel it. She’d covered her mouth with her palm to keep from making a sound, holding on to her dignity because it was the last thing her fingers could touch and grip.

 

“ _She’s_ _going to be okay.”_ She assured herself, “I’m just being stupid.” She hated the way she accidentally repeated lines out of her times with Korra. She could hear her soft snarky comeback now. Teasing her from wherever she wasn’t. 

 

_“Time Magazine’s most influential woman of 2015 is being stupid. This dooms us on so many levels.”_ There was nothing that Asami wanted more then, than to have Korra’s mocha hand lock with hers and squeeze reassuringly as it had then. Opal hadn't said a thing and yet she had heard the voice loud and clear, which was disconcerting.

 

“I’ll call the others.” Opal leaned back to look her in the eyes, jaw set, gaze determined, “We’ll find her.”

 

It takes no time at all for the others to gather and Jump to the other side of town, Asami and Opal in tow. Mako, Bolin, Zhu Li, Varrick, Kai and Jinora, all came at the drop of two words. “ _Korra’s missing._ ” Asami was overwhelmed by the response, rationalising that it was for Korra they were all here, and somehow that made sense. After all she’d saved them all twice. The concern etched in their faces irked the heiress, she felt like as Korra’s familiar she should have stopped her. She should have told her everything. She glared at Zhu Li, her warnings echoing through her mind as it raced and twisted.

 

_If Korra is as powerful as you say she is, there’s no telling the damage she could do…There are high risks that come with this practice. Most importantly for herself._

 

Asami felt shame in incapacitating waves. Wishing she was brave enough to tell them everything. Korra could time travel, but what good is that if she can’t tell them what’s going to happen next. Speech after speech never made it past her lips, so instead she chewed on her nails, watching Varrick tinker with what she could only deduce was an amplifying device of some kind. This man was mad. This man was brilliant. This man was fixing something to the nape of her neck.

 

“Varrick have you tested this thing?” 

 

“Relax this contraption has no internal consequences what-so ever. At worst maybe some inner ear functions but _that’s it._ Right Bolin?”

 

Asami watched Opal nudge Bolin from his pensive state and point. 

 

“What’s that Iknik?”

 

“Ugh-” Mako began, only Varrick had already started his rampage of explanation.

 

“The machine registers Varrickules and their various pairings, specifically within _Jumpers_ and the _soul guardians._ ” 

 

“Like soul mates?” Kai perked up, almost involuntarily, his cheeks flared as every eye in the room hit him, specifically when his familiar side glanced at him with a coy knowing smile.

 

“Regular soul mates have got nothing on these babies sister.” Seeing Kai blushed Mako murmured to him.

 

“Relax he calls everyone sister.”

 

“Guuh.” Kai palmed his face, if Asami didn't feel so hollow she would have laughed. 

 

“By my calculations, Soul Guardians are connected to their jumpers by the more than soul mates power of twenty _Zhu Li’s!”_

 

Asami wished he would stop naming units of measurements after people he knew. If he hadn’t contributed so much to the technological world and spiritual sciences he might have been a laughing stock. Still she felt a certain amount of pride learning that a _Zhu Li_ was only a tenth of a _Korra,_ as a thanks for tearing open the fabric of space and time to stop a six foot tank of a woman from obliterating the people of Republic City. Her name would be remembered throughout the ages, via this obscure, odd and impossible science. 

 

“We’ll connect you up through your chi paths…” he clicked more clasps to Asami’s palms as if to illustrate, “while you meditate, like we do to call the newbies. Using Asami’s connection to Korra call her back lickety split.”

 

“This wont be painful?”

 

“You wont feel a thing sweetie.” 

 

“And Korra?”

 

“That remains to be seen.” Varrick’s expression visibly softened. Doubt creeped in where hope should have been, Asami knew the odds as well as he did. The only differences between their perspectives was that Asami had seen her wife amongst the ether. She’d smiled at her, blown a kiss that pounded squarely on her heart. And Asami was already planning the design of the necklace in the peripherals of her mind. That was enough. She was determined. She would be with Korra. 

 

The Jumpers took lotus positions beside Asami, knee to knee, fists together. Varrick, with Opal to assist, took to the consoles and checked levels, turning on the power that gave a soothing, non threatening hum. For a while there was nothing, yet Asami wouldn't dare allow herself to speak and break concentration. She filled her mind with Korra, Yue Bay, New York, their first date, she steered her memories away from the explicit, half aware that it was entirely possible everyone in the circle could see them. 

There was a moment of absolute clarity, she actually _felt_ a connection with those around her, a concentration and a net cast wide from their presence. Their minds searching, and using Asami’s specific connection to search for the woman she loved.

Korra in her new uniform. She remembered their first kiss, _her first kiss with Korra,_ inside Kwong’s. That was where she was right? Or should she imagine the Korra from this current timeline? Could they end up pulling her out of the wrong one? Could time itself fold over and crumple as these sentinels drag her from where she was supposed to be? Asami’s heart began to pump and her mind spiral and panic. She tried to get back to that soothing place, Hozier, dancing, kissing, sex, their apartment, that half smile, the way her scars tasted and thighs felt around her hips. She let out a sopping gasp clutching her own hands over her chest, it was too much and as much as she tried to reach out she simply couldn't break the barrier within her own mind to find her. There was less a connection and more a collection. A tiny tangent universe dedicated to her beautiful Water Tribe girlfriend.

 

She felt several hands catch her, unlatch the contraption from her chi as the world spun. Her name fell from her lips in broken pieces. Asami writhed and felt a snap, as she reached and searched for Korra, she was greeted only by a void. Her emerald eyes opened, bright white light pouring in her pupils shrank painfully, but it was nothing compared to the piercing of her own heart. Korra could not be reached. It was almost like she had been obliterated.

 

Asami lay there numb to her friends coddling her, she mused quietly, that whatever took Korra could have been so powerful that it propelled her into different tangents of time, thrown her back, and then brought an echo from the future back too, to torture Asami. In the realms of theoretical physics, it was all possible. Even a dimension where they were together right now. How she envied that Asami Sato. 

 

There was nothing left to say. After watching Opal frantically try to gauge what had happened to her boss/friend from the Jumper’s in the room she watched her expression match the six other pitying faces in the room. 

 

The bruises on her thigh tingled, and her fingertips felt sore now that she had stopped biting them. 

Asami didn’t know what to think. She didn't want to. She let Mako pick her up, her temple grazing the concave of his chest while he teleported her to her apartment. 

 

His throat was filled with sawdust, and the awkward cop had no idea how to comfort a mourning friend. Bolin stood by Opal weepy eyed, watching his girlfriend sit beside Asami and Asami drawing the minutest amount of strength from her surroundings. _Don’t cry because it’s over._ Her mother’s grave inscription flittered in the back of her mind, _Smile because it happened._ The shell she’d delicately plastered there burned her eyes. She opened them to spot Korra’s uniform, hanging ready, prim and proper on the back of the door. Despite her best efforts she hadn't made so much as a tear in its fabric. She looked up at Mako, so tall and unaware of just how looming he was. It was adorable really. 

 

“Thank you for helping her with the academy. She was so happy when she came home.” His lips twitched into a smile, and he nodded in acknowledgement, barely able to pull his chin out from his own chest. Opal’s hand stroked the back of her head, turning her into her and wrapping twig like arms around her. Not strong, not firm, spindly and jarring and infinitely un-Korra-like. 

 

“Do you need me to get you anything?”

 

_Her._

 

“Nothing you can find.” she knew her words stung them. She watched Jinora clutching at Kai’s arm by the fireplace, spying the crest there. “I’m going to have to tell her parents this aren't I?”

 

“It can wait Asami. It can all wait.”

 

“What do you need baby?” Asami flinched, Opal couldn't know what those words did to her. Where they brought her. 

 

“Just leave.” she breathed, “for now, just let me think. Alone.”

 

Of course they were reluctant, yet one by one, once they were sure Asami wouldn't do anything stupid on her own, they filtered away. She curled up in bed, Naga lay across her feet, pinning them, worried puppy dog eyes that she couldn't bare to look at staring up at her, she turned to face the sunset with an unblinking gaze.

 

“Goodbye Officer Sato.” Her lips played around the words, but she never actually said them. 

 

The sun was but a sliver atop the ocean when her eyes began to close. Her senses began to trick her, and for the moment, she let them. Coffee lingered in her peripherals, as did quiet footsteps on the floor, trying to keep her from waking. If Naga wasn't already warming her belly she was sure that the beast had sat herself on the edge of the mattress, because it dipped. 

 

She stopped breathing. Warmth flitted from the bedside table, the candles were bing lit. She couldn't move. She pretended, she let herself have this stupid fantasy for but a moment longer before she found the will to open her lips and dive off the precipice.

 

“Korra?” Her voice was weak and full of desperation. What came next made her unable to care.

 

“Not the one you’d expect.” She turned, Naga groaned out of her slumber and yapped, ecstatic. Chest heaving, eyes wide and hair tousled, Asami looked a perfect picture to Korra, blue eyes bright. Shoulder muscles taught, as her braid balanced on her left shoulder, tendrils of soft chestnut hair fallen over her cheek just begging to be pushed back.

 

Asami sat up, now hovering her fingers over Korra’s lips and the wrinkles that were starting to cut into her cheeks, laughter lines they looked like. Korra let her inspect, smug half smile pulling at her mouth. Her thumb touched her brow, and the scar that split her left eyebrow, new to the heiress. Korra closed her eyes as though she was remembering. Soundless waves of love in that one expression that sent shivers scoring through the heiress. She touched her throat and felt the steady pump beneath that delicious brown skin. She traced her collarbone, the arch of her shoulders, both hands parting in symmetry and tracing muscles as if carving stone. 

Korra was watching her now, letting her have her fill, no longer smug. Asami could place _that_ look, only it had evolved, no longer shy, this gaze of utter admiration took her breath and heart and held it hostage. Asami’s numbness was reprieved when the Water Tribe woman’s thumb graced her cheek, wiping away a cool tear. She knew what she was about to say before she even opened her mouth.

 

 “Hey you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait, University is Kerazy  
> Can I haz my degree now?  
> Any way I'll try and keep them frequent but no promises.   
> Comments help though :) xoxo


	14. Chapter 14

Korra’s waking breath came and went as a sharp and precise stabbing sensation that charged through her oesophagus. She coughed, unwilling to open her eyes as she assessed every new injury before she met her waking world. Letting herself linger in her own darkness, sure that whatever was waiting for her may not have been as friendly as her memories. 

 

The Rookie officer missed the absent soothing fingers on her throat when she woke, granted it wasn't often Asami felt the need to hold her there. After nightmares or dark thoughts which, to be honest frequented them both, it wasn't a surprise that the heiress felt the need to check that Korra was still alive and real beside her. Pulse tapping at her fingers rapidly as her lover woke and blushed at the intimate contact. Gentle touches turned to tracing scars, and silent consolation in her arms was just the trick to calm them both before standing against the world. Korra still couldn't believe at how brilliantly Asami was handling everything, the woman of such logic simply accepting a universe that included teleporting best friends and _spirit rays._ And after everything she still found the will to not be terrified all the time, to be romantic. She put up with Korra’s early morning dancing, horrible table manners and supernatural abilities like they weren't even flaws. Korra swore that she might have even liked them. 

 

Korra had as yet found zero flaws in the CEO herself, in over a decade of knowing her, Asami only ever proved herself more perfect with each passing day, even when she was crying. Even on two hours sleep through three days and Korra had to carry her from her office, slumped over her mahogany Earth Kingdom Import Desk, plucking paperwork from clumsy fingers and post-its plastered to her cheek. Who was she kidding that was adorable. Korra wanted to spend the rest of her life with this woman.

 

Korra’s heart skipped as she panicked for a second, latching her hand onto her pocket to make sure her necklace was still safe. As she breathed a sigh of relief, her next breath was a surprised indignant sputter and ungraceful gurgling noise. 

 

“ _Whaduya_!” She reeled surging up, blue eyes open and wide. 

 

“We had to make sure you awake.” She recognised the girl she had healed before the crash, behind the woman who spoke.

 

The water was bitingly cold, a stark contrast to the blistering heat. Despite The Water Tribe woman’s predisposition for the cold, it wasn't the same when ice water is jammed half way through her lungs. 

 

“I suppose I should be thankful for _that._ ” She mumbled in a choked breath. Korra arched her back eyes catching a bloody bandage over her forearm. An odd throb graced her temple, the woman in front of her had already inched closer to unravel the cloth from around her head. Korra flinched and caught her hands.

 

“Wrap need replacing,” she explained. 

 

“It’s okay.” Korra urged, sliding a palm over the wound, refraining herself from cringing. The little girl grabbed her companion, urging her to still and watch in her own language. Korra gave her an understanding half smile, as her eyes began to glow. When it was over she let them inspect her fresh forehead, taking in their gobsmacked expressions with her own sense of smugness. The girl grinned ear to ear, tracing delicate fingers over Korra’s brow. She pursed her lips, scrunching her face in concentration, Korra wasn't sure what she was going to do until finally she spoke.

 

“Why you do this?” 

 

“My girlfriend will get mad if I come home with any more scars.” Korra laughed, and made eye contact both girls to make sure everyone could understand, at least the jist of it all. She gestured to the room around her, which she now realised wasn't as much of a bomb site as she’d expected. She must’ve been out for quite some time. “She worries.” She added that last part softly, concentrating instead on the pit steadily growing in her stomach.

 

“Your eyes.” She was snapped out of her languor by the older girl, “They stopped glowing after five days. And then you wake.”

 

Everything was wrong with that statement.

 

 

 

 

Asami closed her eyes as she basked in the glory of those two words. Acting on impulse her arms curled behind Korra’s neck and pulled her flush against her. She listened to the surprised laugh that bubbled through her, she knew as she memorised each grateful jolt that she would revisit this before going to sleep that night. Right now she was wide awake, a myriad of emotions thrumming throughout her body, clinging to Korra. She considered telling her she loved her, but after this grief and state of utter disbelief she didn't trust what would come after she opened her mouth again. 

 

She had been so sure of that void, and yet she knew the body in her arms better that her own. The kinks and perfect imperfections, the weight of her palms pressing into her back. The familiar feathery breath on the crook of her neck. It was a purely unconscious move the way Asami’s hands slipped her hands under Korra’s shirt hem. Mapping the scars and comparing them to her own memories. Still there and soft her thumb traced the long healed lesions up the Police Officer’s arching spine.

 

“It’s me.” she urged, pressing a kiss onto the heiress’ temple, still slick with tears. Asami sat back to look at her face again. Taking in every cell that she had kissed somewhere between a week, and twenty years from now. She pursed her lips, unable to articulate any of her anger or fear as she reached up to push the loose strands on Korra’s cheeks back with the soft blades of her fingers. She sniffled and Korra couldn't help the grin tugging at her lips. The heiress’ heart squeezed as she smiled back, her happiness emerging all at once and erupting in an unrestrained laugh.

 

“You’re so _old_.” 

 

Surprised Korra laughed back, gesturing to all of her.

 

“And what are you using to stay young? Future Industries anti ageing serum or the blood of the innocent?”  

 

Asami snickered, dragging the heel of her palm to wipe the wetness from her eyes, still clinging with her free hand as if she might disappear any moment. 

 

“Did you have a ring there?”

 

“And a necklace.” The Water Tribe woman reached up to Asami’s throat, touching her pulse and feeling the ghost of what was to come. “I still want some surprises you know.”

 

Asami blanched as she studied the subtle marks. She’d read about Water Tribe betrothal traditions, and there had never been any mention of rings, that seemed to be a rest of the world thing. Still, she thought, none of her relationship with Korra was conventional, somehow mixing traditions seemed a perfect solution. Her mind flew back to her mother’s engagement ring, left to her since her death Asami had only ever touched it once to bury it in the deepest most pockets of her intricate and elaborate jewellery box. The clear jewel carved to tessellate and catch any light in the room. It took breaths and burned corneas with its beauty. Seeing her father pry it off her mother’s finger while choking back tears was possibly one of the sharpest memories Asami had in her already stunning repertoire. _A ring like that should have a purpose_ , she thought. The pain of it seemed to lessen as she looked down and imagined its spirit-like light twinkle over Korra’s mocha skin. That’s if her memories did it any justice.

 

“You came back?”

 

“We’re going to be together for a long time Asami.”

 

“You’re not keeping spoilers anymore?”

 

“I figured out how you were so perfect all these years. How you were so _certain_ about us.” Korra knotted her fingers through Asami’s, grazing her thumb along a puckered strip of skin that the heiress had been cut with dragging her body onto the beach of Yue Bay. “You knew,”

 

“What that if I’d ruin our friendship we’d have great sex?”

 

“That we’re the best people for each other. That our friendship was always destined for more.” Asami looked down at their hands and spied the tan line on Korra’s right hand, “That we’d have these long years happy together.” 

 

The heiress had a habit of imagining her future when around Korra, silently, without verbalising the ghosts that danced at the edge of her vision. Waking up to twinkling dancing lights and crisp perfect presents. Kissing on the rooftop as the ball dropped. The cold wedding with the warmest people on the planet. Toddling toes. Dancing separately, lullingly, but still as a family. The family of one Officer Korra Sato.

 

As much as she’d racked her brains to figure out whether or not they would end up together if Korra hadn’t accidentally given her a confidence boost at Kwongs in 2014, she always hoped that her original plan, to wait and gauge and plan a little more before asking Korra out would have worked. That was if Kuvira’s spirit ray didn't obliterate her, or give her super powers. Asami snapped out of her languor, feeling like maybe she should put these questions to the only time traveller in the room. As she sieved through her questions her psyche slowly began to fill with a new emotion, dread came pooling in her chest and lungs. Her soft breathing became a little erratic as she tightened her hold and opened her mouth.

 

“Why couldn't I find you?”  

 

“There’s this moment, in time that I can’t get to again. It’s like this tear, and exposure is rendering me…catatonic. For this week in December. Like,” Korra’s eyes lit up bright blue for a second, and then returned to normal seemingly at her own will. “I tried to get back sooner but it’s like an explosion, I’m stuck at the epicentre, and the time around you, it’s inaccessible to me without a key.”

 

“You seem to have a lot more control.”

 

“Twenty years will do that to a person. Plus I had the smartest familiar there ever was to help me. Thanks to you I’m the best there is.”

 

“If you can’t get back to, _now,_ how come you’re here?”

 

“You called me.” Korra eyes darkened, something that only happened when she was feeling overwhelmingly guilty. Asami could deduce it was her her past and present throwing fresh perspective on her absences, while she couldn't help them, they still hurt. “I feel your pain twenty years from now. I think it’s because it’s _me,”_ gestured to herself, reaching up to play with the brush at the end of her braid. “That you wanted. This version of me, only six months after I Jumped back to stop Kuvira. Calls are more or less a direct line to the epicentre of a place, if I want to go to a time it takes a lot out of me. It’s less dangerous too.”

 

“Dangerous?”

 

“You can’t expect what I do comes without consequence Asami. If I land where The Spirit Realm is weak the bigger the tear. Me and explosions, me and time travel the tears open, exposing more energy to more areas. Like radiation. We don’t want to cause another rift.”

 

“A rift?”

 

“Spirit rifts. They can freeze, accelerate or obliterate time…in theory.”

 

“But it’s spiritual if anything that means your powers keep balance.”

 

“Or tip it.” The heiress felt her hands squeezing on her fingers. “With the wrong hands.”

 

“And you _came_ _back_ knowing this?” Korra’s lips smiled a reckless, adorable half smile, eyes brightening as she took in Asami’s drawn eyebrows and glittering eyes.

 

“You needed me.” Her azure eyes hit the heiress and incapacitated any chides she was preparing. “Your pain…I couldn't bear it.” Her voice was soft but firm, it came with an intonation of her shoulders, turning her body unconsciously toward Asami. "It felt like you were purging me..."

One year or twenty, it didn't matter, there was an eternity of love in _that look._ All questions and accusations filtered away, end of the world, obliterating time yadda yadda, Asami could feel her resolve melting under her earnest gaze. Korra was all she had left, her parent’s were back in the Water Tribe and here they were each other’s lifeline. Everything between them was that much more precious. 

 

Asamibarely felt the moment that led to her mouth touching the older woman’s. She pondered briefly if she considered this a kind of cheating, she wasn't exactly the other woman, but she wasn't exactly this Korra’s Asami either. Perhaps she was a stepping stone, alas she couldn’t find it in her to care. The odd thought blipped in her mind and almost made her laugh but her need to assure herself and Korra that everything would be okay was too great, and so, straddled her girlfriend, initiating those strong warm hands to come pawing up her spine. She swore she could feel the callous skin through her chemise. She dotted her kisses along her jaw, to her ear, not pressing just tasting. Wordlessly staking her claim. Beautiful. Hers.

 

Her emotions were still thick and muddled but more than anything else she felt a need for Korra, acute to the point of pain. Her arms wrapped around her shoulders again, muffled against the Officer’s neck she whimpered.

 

“I thought I’d lost you.”

 

“Look at me, you’re not gonna.”

 

“When will I get you back?”

 

“When do you think?” 

 

The heiress hummed as her mind conjured the smell of coffee on the horizon in response. A chorus of _Hey You’s_ in her ears and that first gentile kiss eleven months and twenty eight days ago. 

 

Korra arched back. Smiling, arm across the CEO’s back and the other holding her hand between their faces. She flipped Asami’s hand in her own, tracing the lines of her palm with a finger, biting her lip before asking, “You know what I can’t get my head around?” 

 

Asami shook her head before pressing a light kiss to Korra’s fingers.

 

“Why me? Why not sooner in my timeline?” Asami looked down, and then at anywhere but Korra, like it was some dark secret.

 

“I guess I needed proof.” Her gaze snapped back as a slow hand slipped down onto the small of her back, “You’re the best proof there is that we’re untouchable. At least for a while. Everything is going to be okay…For at least twenty years. We have a future.”

 

“Do you want to know what we are when we grow up?” 

 

“I think I know _Officer Sato._ ” 

 

“Kids?”

 

“I’ll be happy whoever we have.”

 

“Car?”

 

“The best. Obviously. Give me a hard one and tell me I’m wrong.”

 

“Spoilers.”

 

“Liar _._ ” Asami laughed, pitching down, touching her forehead, “Even waiting for you never lasts long. I love you Korra. I’ll love whatever life I have with you.”

 

There was a look that crossed Korra’s face that she hadn't seen in a long time. Truth or dare, it said, what next would equate to consequence.

 

“Things start to fall apart here.” Asami’s already pounding heart kicked into overdrive, a sheath of cold sweat swept through her, but she kept her nerve with open ears. She tucked her chin into her chest briefly, before raising her eyes and finally looking her age. “Our world is a lot bigger than you know…we’ve been lied to by some of the most important people in our lives.”

 

“You’re not making any sense.”

 

“I know why your father is in prison Asami.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon future Korra hair that is all- http://hellorhogwartsfics.tumblr.com/post/110472778644/taikova-the-only-acceptable-parent-korra


	15. Chapter 15

 

Asami loved her apartment facing the harbour for three reasons. Number one it faced Yue Bay, a short Sato-Speed-Boat ride and it was the perfect impromptu date spot whenever they felt like it. Number two, in the year to six months, depending on who you spoke to and which timeline they were currently in, Korra had had her on every surface, every tile, rug and ikea desk (of which there were now two thanks to weak struts). And finally, and she had never voiced this out loud to anyone, the Republic City High Security Penitentiary could not be seen from this one high tower. 

 

The stark, metallic ugly island on the north side of the isle was hidden behind skyscrapers and fog on a good day. When her eyes caught from any high office in the it her heart would catch. Some days she’d need a moment, others she broke down entirely, calling Korra from corporate bathrooms and finding her arms around her seconds later. Still, after four years she felt the pressures and prejudices seep through the scars her father had inflicted on her image.

 

It was in the minds of new investors, pity, anxiousness, she made it her mission to drum it out of their eyes with every pitch.

 

All that remained of her family was there, rotting, and she was reminded of the fact everyday. That was until she’d moved in to the penthouse with Korra, she could almost forget, feeling something new and infinitely exciting forged in those four walls with their bed.

 

The memories comforted her as she stood at the prow of the visitors ferry. She’d been searched, but she was thankful that her hard work dissociating herself from Hiroshi Sato in the public eye had finally paid off, because the guards never gave her a second look save to appreciate the way her clothes hugged her curves. Still it felt a delicious thrill to be able to tell someone she was taken.

 

Icy wind poured through her, glad of her circular shades blocking the sharp specs of water appearing inside and out of their safe cover. She had her deepest shade of blood red lipstick on, water proof and as Korra had discovered kiss proof much to her disappointment. She had asked of course, to accompany her to the island. Asami assured her she was old enough to handle this on her own, and as much as she wanted to wait until present Korra returned on the 26th, she admitted too that she didn’t want to risk changing anything, and urged Korra from their beautiful future to return to her Asami.

 

“I’ll call when I need you again.” she’d said with a gentle, relieving smile, after frowning her way contemplatively through Korra’s tales. Braided Korra could of course see right through the front the engineer had expertly built up, her blue eyes were dim and pensive, her warm hands had found the tops of her arms, Asami swore she could feel her callous’ through her shirt as she held her and kissed her temple. She thought of how she loved those hands as her cheek scraped collar bone, not daring to blink knowing the jewels of tears were pooling on her lashes would tumble at the slightest inkling. 

 

“Everything will be okay, baby.”

 

“Promise?”

 

“I’m the only one who can.”

 

She had a myriad of things to say to her father, the last thing she wanted was Korra to be targeted as she settled this underlying score.

 

The moment she stepped off the boat she straightened her back, squared her shoulders and kept her chin high. The heiress held her clutch like she would a blade, even without the keys and ID she held inside it she felt with the right flick of her wrist she could kill a man with it. This idea carried her as she strode through the halls of RC Pen. _Be fearless,_ she chanted to herself, _be like her._

Coming to the final guard, a tall broad shouldered man, skin like Korra’s and eyes darker, they looked at her with apathy and charged a small tray towards her. Asami lay her clutch inside, desperately trying to stay her hand from trembling.

 

“The shades,” he grunted. The heiress stifled a sigh of discomfort, before whipping them off her face into the box, wiping under her eyes fervently in the hopes to clear the inevitably ruined mascara. “It’s been a long time since last you were here Miss Sato.” she paused her ministrations to gape at him, something seemed to have melted within the man because now he saw her his eyes were gentle. She was reminded of her girlfriend, and was comforted enough to pay attention to him. “He may not be the man you remember… I feel like you should be prepared for that.” He swallowed, seemingly concerned that he may have crossed a line.

 

Asami shot him a thankful smirk as she watched her possessions pass under the X-ray. She whipped out her keys and lay them before him. Turning towards the door that she was free to open she turned back.

 

“Promise?”

 

A buzzer and a light, and no sooner had she walked inside the private visitation room had her father been led in by his elbows and his shackles attached to a lengthy chain to the floor. 

 

Everything faded as Asami’s eyes took him in, shrunken, grey her father looked like a cracked and faded photograph. For a second she had dropped all the anger she ever held for the man, and had to scramble to reclaim it, that was until their eyes met. Fierce green on an amber that boiled the blood and plucked like fish hooks in Asami’s skin. There might have been a smile in them, but Asami didn't allow herself to see it. 

 

If there was a way to look comfortable in this seat, Asami couldn't see it. Back straight, hands folded over her lap she gave a single flip of her hair instinctively throwing it in place and let her fury seep out of her soft glare. She couldn't tell if her father was pale because he had been obviously malnourished or he was afraid. _You should be._ The heiress thought wryly. The last time he had seen her she had been this confused sobbing seventeen year old, with no one to turn to except a board of advisors and Korra’s family, already struggling with the nuances of her horrific life altering accident.

 

This was when she’d thrown herself into caring for her best friend so ardently she lived for nothing and no one else. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and retrospectively, helping fix Korra felt a lot like fixing her own problems. 

 

_You have to be strong Asami._ Hiroshi had croaked, aching to hug his daughter on the other end of that line.

 

_I don’t understand,_ she’d sobbed, _why are they doing this?_

 

_I’ve sacrificed my freedom for something bigger, something more important than myself._

 

_Than me?_

 

_For you._

 

He looked too weak a man now to have to be put behind plastic, and he used to be strong, viper quick, calculating and decisive. In and out of the boardroom Hiroshi was a man to be afraid of if made an enemy. Asami was lost briefly in a flood of unwanted memories, her hands clasped tightly over her own knuckles and she instantly wanted to be holding Korra’s hand. She imagined what she’d be doing to soothe her, even the thought of her lips pressing clumsily over her ear in front of her father came as a comfort. A rush of necklaces and rings and aurora super nova’s flitted through her then. She held back a jolt as her father’s voice, gentle in tone but still sharp to her ears cut her from her entropy.

 

“You’re looking well.”

 

“You’re not.” Hiroshi chuckled, until he grasped that Asami’s lips were an unforgiving straight line. A few moments of silence passed uncomfortable and pensive. But Asami didn't know where to begin.

 

“You didn't come all this way to insult my appearance did you ‘Sami?” Asami darted her eyes away and studied the tiles on the wall to their left. Counting tiles like her own breaths, hating the way her pet name still sounded so full of love after all this time. “How’s the real estate been going? I haven’t had an eye on the market for a while now but it’s always such a thrill to turn a profit from a place…” Still Asami’s jaw remained locked, “I know it’s been hard for you handling the company without me…but I’m so proud of how well you’ve been doing.”

 

“You have _no_ _right_.” The heiress snapped, slamming her fist on the table so hard she thought she heard a knuckle break. She used the unexpected pain to bring her breathing down as she glared at her father’s perfect mask. “No right…” she breathed, still struggling with that first hurdle of what she had planned to be a tirade.

 

“Asami-,” and like that she found her voice, finding his unbearable.

 

“ _Paladins!”_ Now she was sure Hiroshi knew _exactly_ where her anger was coming from, “You developed weapons _for Paladins!”_ Her chest began to heave, and with each passing second the barrier that kept her from utilising her deadly array of martial arts was shrinking inch by inch. “You helped think tank methods of murder and destruction with cruel and unusual methods and dragged our name through the mud doing it! And Senna and Tonraq? They were our friends! And you used us to spy on them!”

 

“Their kind has to be stopped. Asami.”

 

“ _None of them were teleporters!”_

 

“They all were! Only Gods should have the power to be _all places. Vicious unfeeling immoral creatures that have the power to do more damage to the universe than I ever could!_ Their bloodlines were the most powerful of them all, they had to be monitored, contained, combined in _that girl-_ the hardest part was watching you traipse around, watching her _familiarising_ herself on you before she was killed! _Thank the spirits!_ ”

 

_“Korra isn't.”_ Asami snapped and then stopped, her brain at once stopped raging and paid attention to the bitter memories churned up now in the forefront of her brilliant mind. Illegal weapons. Faulty contracts. Fraud. She’d eaten the tabloid speculative because they were easy for her to swallow. CEO’s tread on eggshells all the time, it takes a miracle and a magicians bag of tricks to claw one’s way to the top. Sociopathic tendencies were to be expected of most people looking for money. Fortunately these weren’t traits that Asami possessed, Korra always remarked that if she wasn't in business she would be in charity. Asami always countered with a swift _I don’t see why I can’t do both._ Still Hiroshi thinking Korra was dead wasn’t a miscommunication. By rights he shouldn't have ever known about the accident, having been arrested days before. 

 

Asami mused then that when it rains it pours, a domino effect of everything going wrong happened in consecutive days. Her father being arrested, Korra getting crushed and impaled somewhere off of the interstate road in a tornado of ice and foam and faulty breaks. And yet here he knew, _he expected_ that something terrible had happened to Korra. He had no idea she’d survived.

 

“You planned her death didn't you?” The horror in Asami’s voice replaced the anger, it was weak, disbelieving and yet every syllable spoke the awful truth. Her heart clenched at the _idea_ of it. For a moment she begged every deity she could think of for it not to be true, to have her father be the man she once believed he was. Sandcastles on the beach. Tinker toys and Sato-mobile presents. It only took three words to crush that dream.

 

“It was necessary.” Asami saw Korra in that mangled state. It stabbed right through her unforgiving and haunting. She'd almost told a corpse she'd always loved her, instead of a coma patient. _Now_ she wanted nothing more than to have her love in her arms and prove she was real. “She’s one of the few we were certain who’s power would grow exponentially.”

 

“She was just a girl, dad.” And that would be the last time she ever tasted _that word_ on her lips.

 

“What does it matter? It’s over now!”

 

“That doesn't justify what you were a part of!”

 

“ _Doesn’t it?_ Her kind took _everything_ from me, _my freedom, the life of my wife! She wouldn't hesitate to take everything from you and yours!”_  

 

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Asami seethed, “Don’t you dare mention Yasuko Sato in the same sentence as Korra. She’s beautiful and _kind_ and she’s saved so many people, more than you have ever seen in your fucking pathetic life _old man.”_

 

She stood up, her chair ricocheting off the ground like a fish yanked out of a pond as she was unable to stop her tirade now that it had begun. She was itching to claw matching marks into the weak man in front of her that he had given to her Korra. Hot tears tore down her cheeks but she didn't care, her eyes felt like they were burning and her lungs breathing white hot flames.

 

“Asami please listen!”

 

“No! I won’t listen to justify killing a seventeen year old girl, and her sixteen year old cousins and an _innocent man_. And it doesn't matter because _it didn't work._ Your little stunt was only an accident that only the kids walked away from!”

 

“No…” Dread filled Hiroshi’s features, Asami felt an odd thrill watching it suffocate him and freeze him in his shackles.

 

“Korra’s fine. And beautiful and alive and _in love with me.”_ The blade was in her hand, and all she wanted to do now was _twist. “We’re engaged.”_ It wasn't exactly a lie, just not true yet. Hiroshi’s eyes went to the size of dinner plates, if he didn't look nauseous before he sure as shit did now. “ _I gave her mom’s ring.”_ and with that Asami twisted and aimed her stride for the door. Adrenaline pumping, words failing she had to leave before anything else is said.

 

“I’m so sorry Asami…”

 

“Fuck off.”

 

“No Asami. She is dangerous. Now more than ever.” His voice was soft, and genuine and it made Asami feel like she was going to puke.

 

_Everything will be okay, everything will be okay._ She felt the need to repeat the words to herself as Hiroshi’s filled her with terror. “If she isn't dead the fabric of time and reality is at risk of being torn. Do you understand what that means Asami? You know what she can do?”

 

Asami couldn't justify that with an answer. There it was again, this idea of tearing reality apart. Korra had been so flippant about it. And yet mathematically it was a possibility. But only with someone infinitely more powerful than Korra, at least Korra six months ago, on her own, with no one else to aid her.

 

“If what you say is true then you’re the only person who can get close enough to do it.”

 

“Shut up.” 

 

“You have to be strong Asami.”

 

Asami’s fingers clenched around the doorknob. Listening for what else, anything else, that Hiroshi had to dump on her. It was already too late, she clutched a hand over her chest, feeling doubt settling there. There was her logic, and her love and something that told her the two could not survive together. 

 

“I will be.” she whispered. 

 

XXX

 

“Sir?”

  
“Mmm?” 

 

“We’ve received a message Sir.”

 

“Mm.”

 

“A Telegram. Sir.” The agent blinked incredulously at his assistant. Scarred mouth agape. The man wasn't much younger than he, in fact for his entire time at the Bureau Leuten had been his right hand guy from their last employ. Always there, just underneath him. It suited them both fine, Leuten was stoic, calculating from the edge of the room and exploding when need be and his boss; a man with a plan. Still nothing of this nature had reached their desks in over three years, a part of him hoped it never would. He was starting to like the quiet civilian life.

 

“Who’s it from?” His face a mask, he leaned forward, plucking an array of prescription pills  and ointments from his desk and prodding at the blood that weeped from his tear ducts around this time of day.

 

“Equalist Sato Sir.”

 

“Read it to me.”

 

“Visit from A. Stop…and this next part is in all capitals, Sir, WTT STILL ALIVE. Stop. Republic City infected with new breed. Stop. End Telegram.”

 

The agent necked a handful of colourful pills, but gave no reaction to what he had just heard.

 

“Noatak, Sir?”

 

“Not Noatak, Leuten.” he felt a smile pull at his disfigured lips, “Amon is back.”

 


	16. Chapter 16

Korra had been led around this compound three times now, eyes scanning madly for weakness or opening. Getting in wasn't the problem, getting in without being immediately shot between the eyes was another matter all together. Meng’s eyes were more adjusted to spying automatic weapon’s that Korra. Just as the Water Tribe Teleporter began to take apart their target, the Palestinian girl would nudge her hand and point out the wolves on the walls.

 

The building was unmarked, the soldiers inside swore allegiance to a military force that Korra had never seen before, and in her time she had seen plenty to be able to know just how unofficial these men were.They wore dark green masks with fly like red goggles, they must’ve been roasting alive, and yet not one of them seemed to complain about it. The end of the sixth day was fast approaching, and frantically jumping searching for an entrance wasn't helping the starving glances Meng was giving her. Defeated Korra took her hand, and carried her through the void to the home of her aunt, Wu. 

 

The family was small to begin with, Meng and Wu were the only two still living in Gaza, and although they had planned to leave to join family in a Safe Zone, Wu’s wards, twins Poi and Ping, had been stolen by this singularly terrifying army amongst this already contemptuous war zone. Ping was a Teleporter, Poi was not.

 

It was difficult to know how long they had been gone, or the likelihood that they were even alive at this point. Certain things were lost in translation, Wu’s photos helped Korra know who they were looking for and in essence, why she was still there. The pull was still present as the day she had been called. 

 

Wu hugged her niece hard when she appeared in front of her, when it was over she smiled as a giggling Meng readjusted her hijab, shootingKorra with an eye roll and funny face. Korra smirked back, admiring her Varrick-like resilience. 

 

“Progress?” Wu shoved a bowl of rice into her hands and eyed her hopefully. Korra winced and looked away, taking hope in Meng’s optimism as she wolfed on her own portion. Dread was filling her mind from her toes it dragged her down. _Certain death,_ was the code, a day’s trip was pushing the fates. If failure hadn't already occurred it was imminent. Eyes back to Wu she handed her back the bowl. 

 

“I need to try something.” she explained, taking seat in the centre of the living room. Back straight deep breaths, she refused to open her eyes until she had an answer. Her knuckles interlocking together came naturally, as did the way her legs folded beneath her in a lotus position. 

 

Spirituality was something she’d never gotten the hang of. Strength, speed, stepping between countries was second nature, knowing the ides of why and how had never interested her. If only she had paid attention to Varrick’s ramblings on the subject as he clipped sensors onto Bolin’s chi paths. Something about the memory smoothed her psyche. The heaviness of her heart lifted remembering the aimless stumbling of a recently deafened Bolin, much to the amusement of the younger Jumpers and the out right shock that emanated from his new crush. 

 

Korra mused at just how far the couple would make it, what would it take to make them as strong as she felt with Asami. A shard of guilt cut through her then, harsher than heartburn she winced and remembered the heiress was waiting for her, probably out of her brilliant mind with worry. She was in for such a scolding for this, maybe even spending the evening of her ceremony banished the couch. Korra predicted she would stand there with that icy glare, walls up, arms folded, hair, of course, perfect. Korra would graze her fingers across her arms first, feed her fingers between her cold ones. They were always cold until Korra warmed them for her. 

 

She’d whisper to her about the stupid ridiculous things she’d done whilst away, adding in red herrings until the tiniest of smirks would grace those rosy lips. Korra would catch it on a fingertip, balance it on its blade and kiss it, encouraging it to grow. Arms would part, and Korra would continue apologise without words. Asami’s hands cupping her jaw, fingers drawing down, checking her pulse. Korra tried to match the blissful dark of what could be with what was, letting her heartbeat thrum through her body. 

 

After a long moment, after hushed whispers and shushes from the girls in the room, her own chi paths began to tingle, her mind once wandering focussed on a feeling, a light twinkle in the dark abyss. Inch by inch her skin grew numb. The floor beneath her faded from touch, the air dispelled altogether. Vivid gold and green assaulted her senses. Her stomach took to backflips beneath her ribs as she was reminded what it felt like to first jump. That suspended upside down balancing between places. She was holding herself in it, allowing her eyes to peep at what she was hoping wouldn't blind her. 

 

It was entirely unlike what she had expected. The veil wasn’t as suffocating or even full, there was a blank emptiness for a while. She would have started to wander if she knew that her feet were even still attached. The longer she stared, the light gave way to shadows, the shadows morphed and swirled in front of her, a long line of figures as far as her eternity here could muster. And the ghost in front of her slowly began to become solid. Orange clothes took form first. A thick cardigan with blue trim, khakis and loafers. Pale skin, dark eyebrows, grey eyes that stared back at Korra, reflecting her own mischievous and curious inclination. Except his were tainted with a sadness, Korra knew it immediately, she had seen it in Kuvira, it had haunted her nightmares, this was a tinge that came with separation from one’s familiar. Korra’s heart went out to him in the same moment she put up her guard. The Water Tribe girl’s eyes followed the crook of a strong bearded jaw, to the curve of his smooth bald head, and then back down to his smirking lips. 

 

“Do I know you?” Her voice found her before her mouth even opened. The man smiled softly.

 

“Only as well as I know you.” She peered behind him, the queue of equally familiar faces stood still behind him, calm, serene. Different skin tones, creeds, cultures she recognised worldwide and yet Korra knew every one of them. 

 

“Past lives.” She whispered, “Are you…like me?”

 

“Jumpers. Yes.” His smile broadened, and became more knowing. In that moment Korra mused that he had come to terms with his death while she was alive, if it were her she would be spitting mad, especially as he seemed not a day over fifty. “I believe you know my granddaughter,”

 

Jinora’s visage flitted around them, not on screens of projections, something wholly unidentifiable but as solid as the memories as they were first conceived. Korra swept a look at each of them before returning her gaze to her most recent past life.

 

“Tenzin’s father?” She had met him only in passing, feigning a drop off by walking Jinora to her own home some months back after a particularly late mission. Korra had to fake her way through Algebraic jargon to convince the man with the fantastic fumanchu that she was Jinora’s math tutor.

 

“Aang.” He confirmed, still swept up in the glory of watching his ancestor thrive in Korra’s memory. Questions and demands piled up in Korra’s mind, but she couldn't bring herself to disturb what could be this man’s last conscious moment. The look on his face was a treasure of happiness. Korra hoped someone might pay her the same courtesy one day. It sent a shiver scoring down her spine. 

 

“Do the dead watch much?” she asked gently, hopeful, his lips pursed and his smile became wry.

 

“Only what we can bear,” Korra watched as his eyes dimmed for but a moment, and in that moment a lifetime of bruises, scars and wounds flitted over his paled skin. She worried if he was going to keel over again, and yet when he trained his eyes back on her he looked, for lack of a better word, healthy.

 

“Do they know? Your family?”

 

“We were a group. Much like yours. My wife and I, her brother and his wife. Some more you’ll know…others you wont.”

 

“Where are they? Why haven’t I seen them?”

 

“I have met with you here to warn you of a very specific danger Korra. What do you know of Paladins?”

 

“Soldiers of God, right?”

 

“That what the agents who hunt us call themselves.”

 

“ _Hunt us_?”

 

“They were the reason your parents went into hiding, and your father gave up his chiefdom. For as long as there have been Teleporters; there have been the Paladins, and their war against us.”

 

“Hold up - I’ve been doing this for a year, I‘ve never seen _any_ war,”

 

“You’re about to.” Aang’s eyes fell to a space between them, that seemed to open and reveal a place Korra had never been before. If this was the in between, this portal was the next, and it made Korra’s stomach turn violently. 

 

“It did not disappear.” Aang explained, “Both sides just became better at hiding from the other. Till now. They’re overstepping their bounds of reality. They must be stopped Korra.”

 

Strapped to a bed, shirtless tubes and wires protruding from his tiny twelve year old chest, Poi lay unconscious. Next to him his brother roused. He screamed, a current from his own wires coursing through him. Poi flinched but did not wake. A man in a mask, goggles and a white coat, Korra recognised their dress from the wolves on the walls, took to a console that stood before two pronged thrumming barbs of metal. 

 

As Ping screamed, the barbs sparked. The only thing stopping Korra from charging her arms forward and ripping the boy from his bindings was the way reality began to rip and tear between them. A portal formed. The white coat watched tense with anticipation as he flicked a switch and Ping fell silent. And yet as the connection was broken the portal lingered. The man extended his hand, clearly playing with the idea of pushing it through, except after a few seconds the tear sealed.

 

“Holy fuck.” Korra breathed, completely unaware that her voice was audible to the Paladin. He whirled, searching for a person who technically was not there. Heart in her throat, the Teleporter panicked, jamming her hands through and expertly detangling Poi from his bindings and pawing him to her chest, ready to reach for Ping. 

 

The Paladin spotted the mocha arm falling from a slit in the air, and lunged for it. Korra yelped as his bruising grip tugged her down. Her shoulder hit the screech of Poi’s bed painfully. She twisted taking shelter and laying the boy gently behind it before she surged up to leap over to her attacker; raising a taser and aiming it towards her. She dodged with a jump, coming out of it behind him, swinging, this man seemed to see it coming, whirling, wielding it grazed her sternum. 

 

Korra had never heard her own voice reach that pitch before as she yelped and yet she felt the noise rip from her throat. Momentarily stunned, she barely felt the sudden pierce of a scalpel stab her upper arm. She gave an indignant yell of indecipherable cursing, Korra felt her eyes darken and rage well within her. That was two hits too many. 

 

Her hands found his weapons and twisted them, all the while planting her foot on his chest and kicking him so hard she felt a rib snap beneath her heel. He reeled and fell. She seized her opportunity to grab the boys. She leapt, straight back into Aunt Wu’s living room.

 

She lay on the itchy rug, panting, bleeding, Poi and Ping twitching and lolling into consciousness beneath her splayed wings. She reeled at the revelations that had been thrown at her, past lives, Paladins and wars. She wanted to curl up and never uncurl again. Sifting through her memory dread bore down upon her. It wasn't until she felt Meng’s hands rewrapping the bandage on her bloody arm did she realise her mission here was over, and a success.

 

She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. As she stood, several skinny arms knotted around her middle, grateful children whispering gratefully in a language she didn't understand. Aunt Wu’s hand graced her shoulder and her cobalt eyes met her teary ones. The older woman’s voice seemed to be locked with gratitude, but her lips mouthed the words 

 

“Thank You.”

 

XXX

 

Asami felt like an eternity had passed before she had reached this moment. And yet here it was, in the dark of her apartment, sipping cognac her long fingers hovered over the track pad of her laptop. Hesitant, unable to imagine what she would see, if it would be like she had always pictured, or if it could possibly have been worse.

 

Returning to work after screaming at her former boss and father in prison seemed a total culture shock. Her arrival came as a surprise to her assistant, who ogled the CEO with complete wonderment, after having seen her last in a foetal position on her bed two days ago. Asami lied to her, although she was not sure why, telling her Korra had been so far away she was out of reach of their telepathic connection and that she had in fact received a phone call this morning assuring her her girlfriend was okay. 

 

Her next request for her assistant made her eyes double in size, which of itself was quite a feat already. Asami had torn through the attic of her old family home for the VHS tapes that her father had once spent weeks pouring over, surveillance of the fateful night Yasuko Sato was ripped from this world. Asami had never seen them. But something her father had screamed at her resonated far more deeply than anything else. 

 

“ _The life of my wife!”_

 

She had to know, so she asked Opal to transfer these tapes to hard disk. 

 

She had to know if a teleporter killed the only family member that deserved her love. She had no idea what this would do to her, what this would mean for her and Korra. But she knew as soon as Korra looked at her that she was hurting, and she’d have no choice but to tell her everything, and break her heart. And apologise for the death of her uncle. 

 

That is how Asami came to be sitting in the dark, sipping burning liquor, emerald eyes stinging as she refused to blink or look away from the screen. 

 

The hair at the nape of her neck pricked up. She felt the air thin and shudder, and couldn't help the overwhelming warmth spilling from her heart as the zip of a seasoned jumper touched down beside the couch. She pursed her lips, and closed her eyes, tears dripping from them as warm hands graced her cheeks.

 

“Asami. I’m so _sorry_.” She was suddenly torn by the urge to drop her glass, or press play. She had to know but with everything she was she wanted that ignorance she’d possessed a week ago. Korra’s fingers fed through hers over her keyboard. “I tried to get back I really did, but I was in Gaza and then there was a bomb explosion and these kids and then I went to Kwong’s and you were there but it was a year ago and I time-traveled and Kuvira still had her powers and-” 

 

Korra was rambling in an effort to filibuster Asami’s tirade. Asami however felt all the hurt and anguish towards Korra fade into guilt over what her father had done to her and her kind. She felt like such a fraud listening to the complete adoration in her voice. She revelled in something she was sure, at one point, she would never hear again.

 

“It’s _okay_.” Asami gripped back on her fingers and opened her eyes. Unable to help the way seeing Korra made her face break into a watery smile, “I knew where you were.”

 

The glass, the laptop, slipped from concern when Asami held Korra’s face in her hands and kissed her. Intending to be gentle, but inevitably getting caught in the sheer glory of kissing the love of her life. The future Officer Sato. 

 

“I didn't ruin anything?” Korra enquired between kisses.

 

“Not even a little.” Asami joked, for the first time in days it felt so good to finally be herself again. 

 

“But I-“ The heiress leant her forehead on her girlfriends, yanking back tears and training her gaze on hers.

 

“ _Don’t_ ,” her voice was weak and breathy, and Korra was entirely unprepared for it, and completely at it’s mercy. “Please.” Hands hooked behind the officer’s neck she let her guide her to her feet as she pressed them towards the bed. She was musing quips somewhere along the lines of “You’ve got to be up early for your ceremony tomorrow,” or “You need your rest Officer Sato.” but none of it made it past their hungry tongues and teeth. 

 

The blue bomber jacket was slung to the ground, followed promptly after by Asami’s slacks. The back of Korra’s knees buckled on the bed frame and suddenly, gratefully, found Asami straddling on top of her. 

 

Carding her hands through silken black tresses, Korra felt the passions she had been in less than twenty four hours in her own timeline resurrect the memory of their first time. Her throat gave low rumble as Asami nipped at her throat, this was no less precious, but still this Asami who took charge and held on so tight she could bruise worked wonders. 

 

“I _love you_.” Korra blurted. Asami smiled at her, hands peeling up her shirt as she whispered back.

 

“I love you too.” It was then Korra realised that during the time she had time travelled, Asami hadn’t said I love you but to the Korra of her own timeline. Her heart swelled at the notion, and it somehow made it feel all the more true.

 

 

 

When light poured in through the penthouse windows, Asami woke to a tongue lapping at her hand.

 

“Ew Korra.” She flinched at the disapproving groan that emanated from what was essentially the wrong side of the bed. Her emerald eyes opened, and she retracted her hand from Naga, keening hungrily in front of her. She twisted in bed to find Korra’s side once again empty. On a pillow a post it note. 

 

_Gone for Kwong’s._

 

She decided out of the two emotions that suddenly threatened to fill her naked body, rage was the preferable option. 

 

Cursing loudly she tore on her clothes, tossed dry food in a bowl for Naga. She had a tirade planned for Korra, and it couldn't wait until she reappeared when ever she chose to. Asami stormed to the elevator, speeding her satomobile to the bustling coffee shop. She barged through the tinkling door so hard a bell fell off its hinge and Korra looked up from her phone. _Lounging_ on couch like she owned the whole damn place, sipping from her cup absentmindedly until Asami burst in. Her smile froze with fear on her face as her girlfriend’s rage swelled within the building. All attention turned to the lesbians in the room. 

 

The Water Tribe girl stood, trading her coffee for a palm sized box on the table, setting it next to the waiting _Forever Girl_ cup that Asami refused to let melt her resolve. That was until it was obliterated, as Korra bended knee, and opened the box. 

 

“Asami Sato.” Asami clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from a. screaming or b. crying likea spastic walrus. Korra took it as a good omen and continued, “I know I can disappear sometimes, and I promise I never want to leave you feeling like I’ll never come back to you because it’s always been you. Everything else has just been a stepping stone to just be with you, and make us perfect. I mean I kept falling in love with you. Over and over, I mean Yue Bay, and you,” she stopped, her voice beginning to crack she, closed her eyes and adjusted her grip on the box, “taking care of me when I was broken all those times… I can never repay you, but that doesn't mean I will ever stop trying… I want to be with you for all time and I’m sorry it took so long for me to do this, I’ve been carrying this around for months, a year, whatever way you look at it…Will you do me the honour of being my Wife,” 

 

This had been hand carved, Asami wasn't sure when exactly she had taken a step forward, but she was now close enough to trace her fingers over the intricate carving. She spied a beach, a cog, waves and a beam, the stone played with colour and light in a way Asami had never seen before. It was perfect, utterly utterly perfect. Realising she must’ve spent a good minute staring and admiring, and not actually answering, the heiress began to nod. Korra stood and was enveloped by her long arms. A steady mantra of _yes yes yes yes,_ thrumming through both of their mouths and minds. 

 

The CEO couldn't hear anything aside from their joint heartbeat, as they swayed in their mad hug she felt Korra sweep her hair from her neck and bring the light blue silk ribbon up to fasten around her throat. Punctuating the gesture with a kiss on her pulse point. 

 

She scolded herself internally for forgetting her mother’s ring, she’d promised herself as soon as Korra was back she’d bring it with her for when the mood struck, still nothing on this earth could pull her from the happiest feeling in the world. 

 


	17. Chapter 17

 

“ _Hgnh.”_ Korra choked as Asami tugged a little too harshly on the stiff button of her blouse. Her lips played between a grin and a pout as she curled her fingers around Asami’s.

 

“Well you could save yourself the trouble of getting strangled if you did this yourself.” 

 

“Yeah but my hand is all weighed down by this big heavy ring on my finger,” She thumbed at the jewel giving it an appreciative look down between them. She never imagined she’d ever be privy anything this beautiful, aside from Asami herself of course. The Water Tribe girl’s grin won out pitching up she brought her lips parallel to her fiancée’s, “and I like having you dress me, kinda reminds me of our first date.” her expression softened, watching Asami blush and bite her lip, Korra saw one of her great ideas pooling amongst the jade. Her fingers lingering on the button she had just sealed shut as if she were contemplating popping it. She took a breath and yanked Korra’s police cap over her head. 

 

“Hey! _You-”_ Korra ripped the hat from her head and used the same strong arm to scoop behind the heiress’ back, peppering her cheek and neck with kisses. 

 

“Korra! Stop you’ll crumple your things!” her complaints gave way to her laughter, balancing herself and tracing her fingers along the taut hairline at the back of Korra’s neck. She let her thumb tease the stub that her short hair could be tied into. Her breath skipped as her hard hands gripped onto Asami’s lithe hips.

 

“You started it,” Korra countered softly, half smile at its full power and cerulean eyes etched with lust. Asami gulped, feeling the silk necklace dance over her throat. The Rookie officer pressed

her onto her desk, lips skating over red and into alabaster, hand lifting her thigh around her waist as her teeth nipped below silk.

 

“ _Korra_ …” Asami began, partially as a warning, only it came out sounding like encouragement. Thats exactly how Korra took it, hands finding their way through silk and onto skin. 

 

There was a reason this couldn’t happen right now, Asami was sure of it, but this was shrinking with every second. The band snapped, she gave in and pulled Korra’s mouth to hers. 

 

That reason came knocking on the door and sent a judder through them both. Korra hopped back checking her uniform cheeks howling red while Asami clapped her hands over her mouth to keep back her laughter. The officer huffed as she took deep calming breaths and tucked in her shirt, unable to shirk her smirk. The knock came again, as did the voices of their friends floating through the wall.

 

“I’m just staying if we can teleport straight _into_ their apartment why do we even bother with knocking?”

 

“Because it’s rude bro, this is their home they could be doing…stuff,”

 

“Mako!” Opal chided, Asami snorted loudly. Korra fixed her hat and held out her hand which she took. She had a hand on the door handle when Asami turned her and ran a thumb over her lips.

 

“You’ve got some…”

 

“So?” She let her rub until she was content, “I love you.”

 

“We can hear you!” Korra yanked the door to the three buffoons on the other side only to be buffeted by an immediate hug from Bolin.

 

“Congratulations Korra!” 

 

“Bolin! Can’t breathe!” She wheezed before he let her feet touch the squeaking floorboards again.

 

“Sorry! Sorry!”

 

“Oh you’re such a puppy Bolin,” Asami stepped forward to hug him too, lighter this time.

“I’m not a puppy.” he grumbled, “I’ll mess you up.” he stepped back scratching the back of his head, bashfully until he froze, dark green eyes popping out of his head before clapping his big hand over his girlish shriek. 

 

“What is it Lassie? Is Timmy stuck down the well?” Opal laughed, freezing too after she followed his gaze to the blue around Asami’s neck. 

 

The CEO touched the stone she had begun committing to memory two hours ago. Her free hand reached instinctively for Korra who took it without any eye contact.

 

“We’re engaged.” Asami bounced her eyes to all three of them before finding the will to speak, suddenly captured in a four way hug. With her free arm Korra grabbed Mako’s cuff and pulled him into the group hug too.

 

“Okay now we’re all hugging. I’m not ironing this suit again Bolin ease up.” They unlatched, chuckling at Bolin slapped the back of Mako’s cap to fall forward which he snatched back and flipped back in a second before flipping his brother the bird. Remembering where he was, he pocketed his hands and nodded towards the girls. “Congrats. Hum. Yeah. Well done. Nice that.” he pointed to Asami’s necklace and then down to Korra’s ring, “That too.”

 

“I didn’t even see that!” Bolin squealed snatching Korra’s hand a mooning hungrily over the jewel before waving it madly in front of Opal.

 

“Yeah I’m attached to that hand Bolin.” 

 

“So much emotion and I’m not even five foot in your apartment yet! I mean last week we thought you were dead and-” Korra flinched and Opal nudged him, Mako detective that he was decided to change the subject.

 

“Food? I was told there would be food.”

 

“Asami won’t let me see it.” Korra chagrinned jokingly narrowing her eyes. 

 

“And the engagement you have to tell us how you did it? And _where!_ ” Opal interjected. 

 

“Ok we’ll eat and talk, Korra’s parents are coming soon and…we kind of have to give them a different story, for now…” Asami drew off, the weight of having all these new secrets suddenly standing on her chest. Korra’s parents were teleporters, or at least one of them was, and Korra was one too, and her father had planned their daughter’s death and was an enemy spy for a malevolent racist organisation hellbent on destroying her kind. And perhaps one of her kind had murdered Asami’s mother, but she couldn't know that for sure because the video is still unwatched on her laptop. 

 

Her breath skipped as she returned her attention to her reality. Celebration, engagement. specialised food. Collecting herself she lifted the lids off the palettes on the kitchen one by one. 

 

“Thought I’d prepare you for your career in Law Enforcement!”

 

“Bagels, pizza and donuts?” Mako laughed.

 

“Marry me.” Korra whispered. 

 

“Taken.” Asami chimed back accepting her grateful cheek kiss.

 

“Why couldn’t the other’s come?” she asked miraculously already halfway through a slice of meat feast.

 

“Jinora and Kai are still on a school trip and Varrick says, and I quote ‘the law and I have never been simpatico’ as I recall, something about gliding experiments and unpaid city damages. Lin could never make anything stick.” He slapped a reassuring hand between Korra’s shoulder blades, “Sorry kid.”

 

“I’m one year younger than you Eyebrows” 

 

“Who told you my- _Bolin!”_

 

_“So_ how did you crazy kids get engaged?” Bolin let out a nervous laugh, sliding way over to the other side of the kitchen island from his brother giving Korra and Asami another puppy-dog pleading look. Korra shrugged with a mouthful of pizza, somehow still managing to smile and play with the heiress’ fingers. 

 

“You mean how did I agree to marry Miss Strong and Silent over here?” She grinned at Korra’s blushing face and her free hand pulling her hat over her eyes. 

 

Asami fished into her pocket and pulled out the post-it she’d carefully folded there, turning it in her hands before flipping it open for the others to see. She went on to describe her morning, watching Korra grow redder and redder.

 

“I feel like there should be more to this coffee shop huh?”

 

“Shut up Mako it’s a beautiful story!” Bolin damn near blubbered.

 

“Actually there is.” Asami spun her head, instinct telling her that _this_ part should remain the secret she had been keeping for almost a year, and then she remembered, they were back on track. Korra had been the last to know about her own abilities. “When I travelled back in time for the first time, that’s where I landed. Six months before we started dating, I kissed Asami without knowing how early I was…I was so scared and she took care of me like she usually does. Till I figured out what I was doing I came straight back here.”

 

The heiress slipped her arm over her shoulder and pulled her against her side. Reaching for her right hand to run her thumb over Korra’s ring.

 

“This was my mother’s.” News to Korra, she could think of nothing else other than to steal a chaste thankful kiss in front of their friends. Words just didn’t seem like enough. Mako cleared his throat as they touched their foreheads affectionately together, Korra’s hat tilting back and threatening to fall off.

 

“Speaking of Parents, what are we going to tell yours? Like what do they know about,” he gestured to all of them, “this.” Asami pursed her lips, not trusting herself to answer so she let Korra.

 

“They know we’re together, not what I can do. Or that teleporters exist.”

 

“Ooh when did you tell them? How? What’s the coming out story?”

 

“ _Bolin_!” Opal chided 

 

“They took it well it’s okay.” Asami laughed.

 

“A little too well if you ask me.” Korra grumbled reaching for another slice. 

 

“I think it was cute.” 

 

“What woman? I’m on the edge of my seat!” 

 

“We took them out to dinner, nothing strange I get invited me to lots of family functions before so they couldn't have suspected anything. We’d just ordered drinks when Korra grabbed my hand and squeezed like hell and she got that look on her face…the one where she’s preparing to jump into an abyss.”

 

“I was worried _okay_?”

 

“We are familiar with that look,” Mako mused. Korra pouted.

 

“I said ‘Mom, Dad there’s something Asami and I need to tell you,’ I put our hands on the table and then I said-”

 

_“AsamiandIaredatingandmeantforeachotherandtotallyinlove_!” 

 

“Asami!” 

 

“You blurted it out! If they weren’t used to you I can imagine they would have called an exorcist.”

 

“What _did_ they do?”

 

“Oh God,” Korra sighed, rubbing the back of her neck habitually, yet she was unable to stop the proud smirk pulling on her lips, “My dad handed my mom a twenty.”

 

“They bet you were dating? That’s excellent!” 

 

“They bet that we would tell them then, apparently it’s a bet they’ve been making for years.”

 

“Senna beats Tonraq 90 times out of 100.”

 

“What can I say? It’s a mother’s intuition,” They whirled to spot Korra’s mother hanging her coat on the hat rack and Tonraq closing the door behind them.

 

“You really have to get someone to look at that,” the tall man in the low ceilinged apartment commented as he forcibly clicked the door shut. 

 

“Hello to you too.” Korra smiled marching over to her parents and being caught in her third crushing hug of the day. Asami kept her back to them for the moment, running her thumbs over the note in her and and briefly kissing her fingers to the pendant for good luck before turning, hoping desperately to keep the guilt from her face. She turned and the Water Tribe members in the room seized in combined shock and anticipation from the sigil around the heiress’ neck. Korra didn't say anything, she stepped around to get a better view. 

 

Tonraq rolled his eyes, fished his hand into his pocket and slapped twenty yuan into his wife’s open hand.

 

“Oh come on _Mom_!” 

 

Pocketing the cash Senna proceeded with her gushing and embracing Asami into the family, all the while Opal, Bolin and Mako were hooting with laughter from the kitchenette.

 

 

XXX

 

They made a show of driving to the ceremony, piling into the back of Asami’s Satomobiles Mako and Bolin tried desperately to not look uncomfortable in a vehicle neither of them had sat in for over a year.

 

Senna sat in front with Asami, prying as many details out of her future daughter in law as she could about the proposal. Asami kept getting distracted however, her eyes catching Korra pressed against her father’s giant side, Tonraq was smirking down at her, when he put his arm over her shoulders she didn't shrug away. 

 

If she didn’t have to keep watching the road she could have sworn those blue eyes were glittering with tears. Korra felt acceptance in such incapacitating waves she had no choice but to rest her cheek on her father’s shoulder and enjoy the moment while she still had it. 

 

Asami thought about how much she loved this family. Her family.

 

Korra was sat with the other recruits, Asami could hardly recognise her if not for the scar the creeped up above her collar the back of her neck. Senna took the handkerchief that she offered gratefully, as well as the hand that she didn’t.

 

“I’m a mess,” she whispered shaking her head. 

 

“Five yuan says she trips up the stairs.” Asami whispered back and Senna laughed, squeezing the heiress’ fingers.

 

“You’ll do just fine here.” Asami smiled at her nervously, an act that became more genuine each moment that Senna’s bright blue eyes smiled up at her, “You’re on.”

 

 

 

Asami hadn’t realised how much the police officers of the Republic City Police Force could drink until the veterans of the force were breaking in the rookies that evening. Mako alongside the other captains made a special effort to let them know that one particular cadet had just gotten engaged. Asami smiled as she listened to her fiancee drawl that as a Water Tribe gal she could hold her liquor better than any city slicker here, this was of course before she sat beside Mako to tell him something new and interesting about his eyebrows, but spent a good two minutes trying to put her seat belt on from her bar stool.

 

Perhaps it was the three glasses of wine, but despite herself, Asami felt her mask slipping. This was disconcerting to the heiress, being that her own tastes in alcoholic beverages could have her drinking scotch old enough to buy its own scotch without breaking into a sweat. She watched Korra undo her shirt buttons, the first thing her eyes spotted were those puckered pale scars that littered her collar bone and the guilt flittered up from her heart into her eyes. She snatched a gaze away, landing on Senna’s without thinking. 

 

“I just need some air.” She breathed, twisting and rushing out of the front entrance to the pub. The tears began to flow, her long fingers catching them before anyone she knew would see. The cold air helped sober her, but she was thrown off complete recovery by Senna’s soft voice.

 

“Asami what’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing. Senna it’s nothing. It was just…hot in there.”

 

“ _Honey_ ,” Asami closed her eyes and listened to the glory of something she hadn't heard for near ten years, that motherly concern. That ardent unconditional caring, it broke her and she sobbed into her hand. “You know you can tell us anything.” Asami felt Korra’s mother wrap her arms around her, “Tonraq and I will always be there for you Asami, you’ve been through so much. Say whatever you need to and I promise I’ll understand.”

 

Asami choked out a sob and gripped Senna’s jacket. 

 

“I _can’t_.”  

 

“You don’t have to sweetie. Just between us.”

 

“I know what you are. You and Tonraq.” The heiress’ heart seized as she felt Senna tense, “I know what Korra is, and I’m her Familiar too.” She pulled away, looking her in the eyes and taking a step back. “My father he planned…”

 

“We know.”

 

“You know? You know what he did to Korra.”

 

“It happened all at once.” Senna admitted, “We tried to get her out of harms way but your father was one step ahead of us, even after we had him in custody.” 

 

Asami took stock of their position, Senna was still holding her arms, she hadn't shied away from her touch, she hadn't even started screaming.

 

“Why did you trust me?” The CEO felt a warm hand on her cheek.

 

“I knew you were in love with Korra when I saw you with her that day.” 

 

 

 

 

The chaos of that painful day was a minute by minute log that Asami couldn't erase from her mind even if she tried. No one could get in touch with Korra’s parents.

 

Every breath was a sob waiting to happen, all the time Korra was in the O.R. Asami had been holding it. All she could think was _I can’t lose her too._ She paced the letters into the waiting room floor for the hours she was there. A doctor emerged, plucking gloves from fingers and searching the room for Senna or Tonraq.

 

“Is she okay? Can I see her.”

 

“She’s stable, anything else I can only share with fami-”

 

“ _Don’t you dare say family._ My family has donated six wings to this hospital and more equipment than went in the Hubble telescope. Or does the Sato name mean nothing inscribed on the board of directors plaque in the reception of this hospital!” Asami was finding she had quite a knack for screaming at people through blinding tears “Korra _is my person._ She’s the only person I have left and I am the only person here for her. I need to be there for her right now so you tell me everything you have on that chart and let me in that room _or so help me God_ I know how to break your spine in enough places it would be possible for you to actually go fuck yourself! _”_

 

The Doctor evaluated his choices for a second and spent the rest of the silence working his lips around words in front of this terrifying and vulnerable girl. 

 

The balance tipped towards the latter when she stepped inside that room, she barely made it to the bedside as she hovered her hand considering where it was acceptable to touch without her completely shattering. Laid on her side, bangs covering her eyes, Asami thought she looked like she was 90% bandage. She kneeled on the bedside chair, hovering her fingers over fresh stitches she felt it was best to just slip her fingers through her chocolate locks, stroking aimlessly, unable to form strong enough sentences that she wanted Korra to hear. She listened to the steady reassuring peep of the heart rate monitor. 

 

Asami didn’t hear Senna appear behind her, the mother crushed her urge to rip the spawn of Sato away from her daughter until she waited, and she listened. Asami’s lips were almost touching Korra’s forehead now, and her hand stroking soothingly over her ear and refusing to stop. 

 

“…And you pushed that kid down into that hole and made him sit there while we built that sandcastle around his head…We haven't made a castle in so long I bet you’ve gotten sloppy…That’s the only thing I want you to worry about, I can hire a tutor to cover your classes and they’ll be so smart you can come back and make Mr Goldfarb look like a total idiot when you’re all okay. Please be okay Korra, I need you to be okay.”

 

Back in the present Senna rubbed her hands up Asami’s arms to bring her out of her own head.

 

“You’ve been a part of this family since you were eight years old. It doesn't matter that you met us under a ruse or a scandal, every moment you’ve ever spent with us has been genuine.”

 

“If I’d have paid attention I could have caught him. I could have saved her so much pain.”

 

“She’s okay now. It would have been so much worse if you weren't there to guide her. If there is anyone who deserves her; it’s you Asami.”

 

Asami pawed the hair out of her eyes and wiped the mascara from her cheeks. She had one last question eating her, and while she felt relief knowing that when she tells Korra about her father she has Senna to support her, it would kill her not to ask it. She accepted her hug gratefully, calming her breathing and holding onto the only mother figure she had left. When she let go she looked down, scared, suddenly feeling small.

 

“Do you know what happened to my mother?”

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

Asami couldn't bring herself to look up, unsure of which answers would be the least devastating, even as a look on Senna’s face. She felt a light squeeze on her fingers, and listened to every sound that she made intently. 

 

“We were there for the aftermath, nothing else.” Asami hung her head lower, ashamed at what she had been thinking. Senna sat on a nearby stool, the weight of the memories heavy on her slight shoulders. “Your father was so angry. So broken. Tonraq said couldn't get a word out of him. I took you and Korra home as they spoke. I don’t think you knew what was going on…It would have been impossible for him to not change on that day. But even then we couldn't guess what he would do to us. What he’d blame us for.”

 

“Was it a Jumper?” Senna’s eyes flashed and looked Asami straight in her eyes. The silence disturbed only by the hoots of the cops in the bar beside them. 

 

“It could have been. We really don’t know.”

 

“How could you not know? It either was or _wasn’t.”_ Asami snapped, but immediately retreated, regretting the spiteful edge her voice took. She mumbled an apology and turned to face the door. Yet still found herself unable to walk into the room where Korra and her friends were celebrating so jubilantly. Even though she loved her she felt like such an outsider. 

 

“There was very little evidence either way.” Senna continued, light fingers curling around the heiress’ nimble shoulders, “The building was destroyed, a bomb tore through it. Whoever set it off was obliterated.” 

 

Asami felt her body grow cold, her mind twisted and she cursed silently the extra questions she had been given rather than answered. Stepping back into the conversation she added breathlessly.

 

“I have the tapes…” She felt Senna’s light grip loosen, from shock perhaps. Never the less Asami hated herself in that moment. “I haven’t been able to watch them…I don’t know what all this will do to us.” Asami had never seen that look on a woman’s face before, despite their similarities she couldn't match it to anything she had ever seen on Korra. Brows drawn, eyes wide filled with something between rage and mortification, yet there was undeniable affection in that look, and Asami loved and hated it.

 

This was when the bar door swung open and bounced haphazardly on the walls before Korra put her hand on it, embarrassed at her own strength. 

 

“There you are baby!” she beamed, eyes a little clearer than Asami had left them but still clouded with alcohol. Asami sought escape and found her hand curling into Korra’s shirt and pulling her into her arms. “It’s great in there and all but,” she leaned back and bit her lip in a way that made Asami want to kiss her up against the wall, “nothing I do feels complete until I share it with you.”

 

Asami pressed her forehead to hers, raising her hands to brush the strands of hair that had free’d themselves from that adorable ponytail and smiling allowing the tears that had collected to stream unabashed.

 

“Hey, what’s going on?”

 

“Nothing.” she whispered, feeling Korra flexing her arms gratefully and earning a laugh as she lifted the heiress off the ground, “Your mom was just…accepting me into the family,”

 

“Aw you _guys_ ,” Korra drawled, hooking her arms over both their shoulders, “I wish I wasn't so drunk for this moment,” she tilted languidly, falling into her lovers arms again, “Oh crod I didn't ruin it did I?”

 

“No it’s fine, you made it better,” Asami laughed and kissed her hairline, glad that for the moment she could avoid looking at that heartbreaking expression on Senna’s face. She felt the need to add softly, “I love you.” while she still could.

 

“Well come love me indoors. I hear talk of body shots.” her hand was already teeming into the heiresses shirt.

 

“We will in a minute sweet.” Senna reminded her daughter of her presence with a hand to her numb forearm, “I need to let Asami know something.”

 

“Is it that she’s gay? Because I really don't think I can take it.”

 

“You’re such an idiot.”

 

“Ah but whom is the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool who fu-ornicates with her. Hi mom!” Korra’s rosy cheeks flared at the slip of her tongue, and she finally allowed Asami to extricate her from her arms. “I’ll see you inside where we can fool around later. _Fiancee.”_ she pointed at her eyes and then used those fingers to point back at her two favourite women, whispering happily, “ _Water Tribe_.” in a spectacular circular gesture before being swallowed by the swinging door.

 

Senna watched Asami visibly deflate at her daughter’s exit, for as long as it lasted any way, because Korra forgot something. Stepping through the backswing of the door, Korra’s trained hands pulled her down for a sweet kiss.

 

“‘Love you too.” She turned back grinning with Asami’s lipstick proudly smeared on her mouth. 

 

When she was gone Senna let out a breath that drew back the heiresses attention. 

 

“I don’t think I’ve seen her this happy since, well, meeting you.” 

 

“Yeah. I’m sorry she doesn’t have usually drink so much.” 

 

“Asami she’s an adult. As much as we love her she can handle herself, and she can handle this. Tonraq and I won’t leave you to go through this on your own. We can tell her together…Tomorrow when she’s sober.” Asami allowed a smile as she felt Senna pull her into her arms. “And we’ll watch that awful video together as a family.”

 

Asami felt like if she wasn't propped up she would have melted there and then. She remembered her father alone and bitter in his cell, and in that moment she wondered how anyone could ever be mad at these people. The warmest people on Earth right here in Republic City. 

 

Senna promised to meet them tomorrow to go through this, but for the moment, this party had become an impromptu celebration for the couple’s engagement. Re-entering the establishment the Water Tribe woman had to coax the ex Southern Chief from another round of jaeger shots with Republic City’s finest, which were free, she’d learned, due to their daughter graduating top of her class.

 

“Being a father is finally paying off!” he winked with both eyes at Asami as his wife rolled hers. The heiresses jaw dropped as she watched her expertly snatch and throw back the shot that had been poured in front of him barely a second before. 

 

The heiress scanned the room. Bolin and Opal were huddled into their own little booth, their own little romantic world of promise and future. Asami could tell they were going to last by how they held their hands. Barely touching, completely intertwined. Mako was in a bout of shots and a show of ritual drinking with RCFD, it seemed the backbone of the city had formed two opposing teams, and were in a drinking race either sides of a pool table.There wasn’t a ponytail in sight.

 

Suddenly she felt those familiar hands grace her hips from behind, punctuated with a kiss to the back of her neck and that silken voice cooing, 

 

“Hey you.” She slapped a hand to catch Korra’s, tracing fingers over the diamonds that yesterday weren’t there. Lips teased the silk at the back of her neck before pitching up to nibble at her earlobe. She goaded. “Dance with me.” 

 

“Absolutely.” It started as a fun jig of tangled hands and messy feet to _Redbone’s_ “Come and Get Your Love” surrounded by RCPD, the joining Fire Department, Bolin and Opal and a severely uncomfortable Mako who couldn't seem to raise his elbows higher than his ribs whereas his brother had the exact opposite of that problem. 

 

Facing Korra her worries were definitely being stripped away, as were the other people in the room. Coupled with the song change, or her fingers finding there way into weak spots in Korra’s tiny pony tail, or Korra’s palms holding her against her and massaging the sore spots under her shoulder blades, their dance became slow, intimate. Not at all suited to the Beyonce song that had started to play. Asami lowered her lips to Korra’s ear, smiling.

 

“I’m so proud of you. Your uniform makes you look so _snazzy.”_

 

“You’re never going to let that go are you?” 

 

Long fingers curled into that crisp collar and refolding it gently over those taut shoulders.

 

“Never.” 

 

Her fingers traced puckered skin and her stomach bottomed out, counting the seconds that went by that Korra would let her touch her still. One Mississippi. That look of devastation on her face was a day away. It was like looking at an exquisite ming vase, all the more precious knowing it wouldn't last the night. Hoots and cheers erupted from around them when she pressed her lips to her fiancee’s. She tried not to let her need show, instead it shone through as intensity and passion, when they parted Korra’s eyes were dark and focused. Breathless and slightly indignant; Asami’s kiss had stolen her words. 

 

“Take me home.”

 

Korra’s smile had dropped before the kiss, but now her expression was unreadable. Still she nodded, adjusted her hands to hold Asami’s, led her from friend to friend and bid their goodbyes, accepted their good lucks. 

 

“Take your shoes off.” They were half way down the block when Korra spoke to her finally. Asami expected she’d squeeze their hands and they’d be home, and she could log and calculate and store every moment together while they had it. Korra’s spontaneity was throwing her off her plan.

 

“Why? They’re Choos, I thought you liked my Choos.” Korra was already shucking out of her all black converse, and rolling her pant legs up her calves before taking Asami’s in hers.

 

“You have the no pants rule in the bed.” She unclipped the pump from her ankle and slipped it off.

 

“It’s not a rule it’s-” The heiress drew off, partially realising that the story of the fast and loose bed pants had only started because of that first night together, because Korra took hers off because the Asami of her timeline insisted on sleeping without them. The other part was the young Officer’s lips familiarising themselves with the long since faded marks on her thigh. 

 

“ _Korra_ ,” she breathed, balancing hands on her shoulders as she prepared to be inevitable sweep and her pulsing heart thrummed through her.

 

“Hold,” Korra stood, presenting Asami with her own shoes. 

 

“Korra?”

 

“Shush.” She placed her sneakers atop of the heiress’ Choos. Before Asami could think about being angry about a rookie cop stealing the shoes off of the youngest, most influential CEO in the country and telling her to _shush,_ her legs suddenly became parallel with the ground. 

 

Gold and green swept her senses in a rush of light and the siren song of waves. Cackling softly Korra lost balance and they tumbled onto the sand. Korra’s knees dug into the ground at her hips and their hands twisted and sinking at her head. Asami felt her laughs subside, realising that Korra had stopped and was staring at her with that odd expression again. She pressed a kiss to it, hoping it would change, It didn’t.

 

“Are you in a safe place?”

 

“What?”

 

“This is home for us right? This place.”

 

“Well yes-”

 

“And you trust me?”

 

“I love you.” Korra gripped tighter, and their hands sank a little deeper.

 

“It’s not the same.”

 

“Of course I trust you.”

 

“Then why are you so scared?” Asami felt her heart jolt, and unconsciously her toes began to twist and burrow. _Impossible,_ she thought. Impossible that Korra remembered every twitch and twist that went through her body when she was uncomfortable, worried, and what she needed to get through it. Her mother’s Wake and funeral that led them here, hand in hand, toes in the sand, digging for treasure without letting go. Seeking memories and chasing each other after she and her father scattered the ashes. There was comfort in it. 

 

She reached up to touch her lips, forgetting the granules on her fingers and smiling finally as she listened to the _pfft_ noise that resulted. “I can taste it.” 

 

“You’re ridiculous.” Emerald eyes narrowed despite the smirk tugging at her lips.

 

“It’s true and I can see it. You try to hide it because you’re a badass but, I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re scared Sato.” Her fingers traced down, skating lightly over the pendant she’s presented her with that morning. “This doesn't have to change anything if you don’t want it to.”

 

Her voice came out so small and gentle Asami had to take a moment to wonder if it was Korra or the ocean whispering at her. She could swear that the ebb and flow and whoosh took over her senses and slicked her skin with anguish and guilt. 

 

“This isn't that.” She started to sit up, and Korra let her, watching their shoes slide off of the heiresses flat stomach. Scrunching her eyes shut, Asami clung to that one hand with both of hers, begging silently that she would dissipate after she told her. 

 

“If this mascara’s waterproof I think you need to sue the company.”

 

A smile tugged at her lips as warm hands wiped the stream. 

 

“I met with Hiroshi on Thursday.”

 

“Since when do you call your dad Hiroshi?” 

 

“Korra please, if you, I can only say this once. It’s killing me so please just…” she hung her head.

 

“Okay, okay I’m listening, you met with Hiroshi.”

 

“I knew why they imprisoned him, he’d designed and commissioned weapons that were illegal, but I never questioned why they were illegal…until you came back from the future. I called you when I couldn’t reach you and I was scared and you warned me about what he did.” She took a moment to dig her toes into the sand, Korra was right this was a safe place. She knew what she was doing when she brought her here. If it was possible she fell more in love with her in that moment. “He was a part of the organisation the weapons were commissioned for. And these weren’t weapons made to kill, they were to stun, and fry the body so it’s in nothing but excruciating pain but it also keeps you conscious. It’s the only way to stop a Teleporter from jumping.” 

Opening her eyes her free hand started tracing the scars she could see, the ones she’d kissed and traced and loved for proving Korra survived. 

“He was high up, and he knew what you were before you did. And I didn't believe it so I saw him and it wasn't until I heard him _talk_ about you and how much he hated you did I realise that he planned…your accident. It wasn't an accident it was fucking murder and I’m so sorry…I should have seen it. What he was and-” Korra yanked her into a hug. Asami felt her scars against her cheek and the starchy crispness of her troopers uniform. 

 

“Paladins right?”

 

“How did-”

 

“I had a past life warn me of the clandestine organisation that’s been hunting my kind for at least two generations while meditating into the spirit plain in Gaza.” Asami didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified, “His name is Aang, he was Jinora’s grandfather. And Bald, I hope that’s not genetic. If genetic is the right word.” The heiress laughed weakly, disbelieving as she fed her arms tighter around her. Korra rocked back on her knees to touch her forehead to Asami’s. “You’re fine ‘Sami. The only thing that _accident_ did to this relationship was prevent me from asking you to senior prom.” Lips met in a slow and sweet kiss.

 

“You did, I didn't think you meant it because you were high and singing the goofy goober song over and over.” 

 

“I was _obviously_ serenading you,” Korra grinned, “As far as I’m concerned baby, I’m still taking your name. I owe you everything.” 

 

“There’s more. I have more to tell you.”

 

“But you don’t want to tell me now?”

 

“We just got engaged. You just came back. We’re young, lets act like it… _please_.”

 

“You want me to act young huh?”

 

“You know what I mean.”

 

“No no, I can act young for you _my dear_.”

 

“Korra no, I know what you’re thinking! _Don’t-_ ” This was when Korra scooped her up and jumped them into the ocean. “ _Versace_!” Asami sputtered, ripping off her jacket and trying to keep it, extremely unsuccessfully from the surf. Surfacing writhing in the officers strong arms, before she realised the water was only waist deep. Yet Korra insisted on floating on the surface and treading water.

 

“You have like three Versace’s.” She smiled up at her, blue eyes gleaming with the starlight and Asami stopped struggling, “At least your shoes are dry.” she offered sliding her hands into the heiresses shirt and touching skin.

 

“It’s _freezing_.” She burrowed her face in Korra’s inexplicably hot shoulder.

 

“Molecules,” she explained gleefully as the water began to heat up around them. Asami couldn't think about anything else to say other than.

 

“What about global warming?”

 

“This is like six cubic feet of ocean hot tub I think the otter penguins are safe.” 

 

Asami leaned back, letting the water comb her hair together and out of her face. Her jacket fell away. When she returned her gaze to Korra she was watching her with hooded eyes, her shirt now completely parted, the white vest beneath see through, strips of hair had fallen from her tail and hung dripping over her cheeks. The heiress drifted towards her, palm finding home under Korra’s shirt and tracing abs and imperfections. Korra’s own hands were indulging in a habit she’d had since before they started dating, stroking from her knee to the tops of her thigh as she cerulean became lost in emerald.

 

“Officer Sato.”

 

“Yeah baby?”

 

“Kiss me.”

 

The water was blissful and balmy as they pressed closer together, lips skating and indulging in the electric pulse that thrummed happily whenever they touched. Versace, unfortunately, was lost to the tide, but Asami found herself unable to care as Korra stripped her, wordlessly scooping her out of the water and jumping them into her walk in shower. If the heiress didn't have her lower lip clamped firmly between her teeth she would have explained the brilliance of jumping from water into a room with a drain. Still she had better things to be doing. Things. People. Fiancee’s. 

 

Clothes hit walls with a wet pap, Asami tugging off Korra’s undershirt as she raised her arms. At it slapped tile Korra’s breath came out broken, sultry, hands tugging at silk she tried to ignore the memories flitting past her eyes.

 

_Eyes burning in the sterile brightness of RC General’s ICU. Waking up with skin on fire. Trapped in a body she couldn't move and unsure of just how alive she was until she felt the cold tug on her left hand. Machine’s bleating, head swimming with drugs, Asami was the only thing pinning her to the Earth. Asami’s nose puffing sleeping breaths onto her fingertips as her lips held against her palm._

 

Palm against her wrist the heiress kissed her fingertips before knotting their fingers. She made a noise at the back of her throat and lets her mouth dance across Korra’s collar, kissing scars, caressing.

 

_Caressing her cheek with her thumb gently, Asami forcing a smile as she drew a stinging cloth steeped in iodine along Korra’s stitches. Joking how Mr. Goldfarb was going to have a conniption when she got back to school and would be smarter than everyone else combined thanks to the tutor she was shipping in. Korra had tried to reach up, reciprocate kindness by brushing hair behind her ear, but her muscles were too bruised and weak to pull her in for the kiss she wanted. Kiss, bite, tug, these urges consumed her, Korra couldn’t begin to regret what the accident had done to her because it led her on a path that let Asami touch her. It was selfish, and idiotic but even when she was drugged out of her mind she’d loved every minute of being taken care of by her. It became something she craved._

 

Korra craved the sparks now, wherever Asami’s hands roamed and hers clasped. Friction on the skin warmed her every inch, it almost seemed a shame to lay her down on their bed but she wanted both hands free to slide. Her mouth guided over the scar on her abdomen, the sparks catch and so does Korra’s breath. Fingers curling in raven hair as she bites her hip and jade looks up at her. Smiling, fingers teeming into her shorts that she started tugging town, inch by inch, chuckling softly as Korra let out an impatient moan.

 

Expertly angled shoulders arched beneath her legs, Korra couldn't dwell on their perfection and god-like sculpt as she threw her head back and clung to her combustion. 

 

Spent and on the edge of sleep, Korra mused as she pulled the heiresses back into her front on the night they’d first shared a bed after her accident. Despite the awkwardness of initially asking Asami to sleep next to her in her single, she’d still managed to make a chasm between them. It was only when the Water Tribe girl had reached up and touched her jaw and throat did the young heiress reciprocate. Korra had watched the relief flood her face as Asami used Korra’s continuing pulse to calm herself into sleep that night.

 

For now Korra rubbed her nose and lips on the parts of the necklace she could reach until sleep found them both. 

 

Asami woke without her arms around her, again. Her stomach bottomed out, burying her face in her pillow she screeched angrily before she felt the light ministrations on her thigh.

 

“I still have sand between my toes.” Korra grumbled rolling towards her. She twisted and embraced her.

 

“You stayed!”

 

“What are we just starting out? I never mean to leave you alone in this thing Sato.” Asami leaned on her elbow and admired her, letting the sheet fall from her bare shoulder. She was wearing her RCPD workout shirt and boxers.

 

“Why are you dressed?” 

 

“Honey where’s your coffee? Tonraq can only find chai and it’s no good for his-” Asami shrieked and tipped off her side of the bed to hide her bare chest from Senna, whom had wandered from the kitchen holding up two cans of ambiguous tea.

 

She grimaced and grunted and tugged the blanket off the bed to cover herself. Face as red as a fire engine, which she covered with her palms and quietly whispered to herself. “ _Oh my god I’ve just flashed Korra’s mother_ ,”

 

“You okay sweetness?” Korra tried and failed to keep the laughter from her voice.

 

“Just having a miniature heart attack dear.”

 

“We buy our coffee out Mom. Kwong’s remember?”

 

“Ah, I’ll improvise.” Unperturbed by what she had just witnessed Senna wandered back to the kitchen and started tinkering and tending to all manner of breakfast food.

 

“ _Korra,_ why didn't you wake me?” 

 

“You looked so cute I didn't want to bother you.” The rookie officer snickered and pulled herself over to look at Asami wrapping herself on the floor. “Besides you’d never let my mom cook breakfast and she loves doing it for all four of us.”

 

“Just tell me one thing.”

 

“Yeah baby?”

 

“Did your dad give your mom any money when they walked in here?”

 

Korra pursed her lips and bit her lip before nodding. 

 

“Ugh.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluffy angsty angsty fluffy  
> sorry to drag out the tapes thing but things needed to happen before things happen so yup  
> Sorry it's taking so long also I've been in bed with flu so brain capacity is at half mast


	19. Chapter 19

 

Asami felt a slight culture shock, watching Senna prepare food for them as if they had just come down from an innocent sleepover. After throwing on shorts, Korra’s fire ferrets hockey jersey and clawing her hair into a reasonable pony tail she joined a sleepy Korra leaning her chin the heel of her palm on the kitchen island. Her free hand pawed blindly and clumsily for her pale one, fingers knotting out of view as Asami felt her blush only throb harder at Senna’s presence. 

 

“Would it make it easier if I said she’s seen it all before?” Korra caught her shifting gaze finally, after Asami had taken in Tonraq slumped over his chai, concentration marring his features as his head swum with jaeger and ouzo and the Water Tribe woman absently humming as she added the finishing spices to their eggs.

 

“It’s true I had a girlfriend in college.”

 

“I meant the kiddie pools - _mom!”_

 

Korra clapped her hands over her eyes and let her forehead touch the table as a barrage of images assaulted her alcohol weakened mind. Tonraq barked a laugh and then gripped his stomach and oozed an uncertain, “Oooh,” 

 

Asami placed both hands on the marble in front of her and begged.

 

“Counter, please swallow me whole.”

 

“Asami doesn't _usually_ sleep in the buff,” Korra interjected trying to save her fiancee’s dignity, albeit poorly.

 

“Not at least when I know _people_ are coming round.” 

 

“She just got caught up in all the uh,” the rookie officer with the half a functioning brain couldn't think of a lie, plus the heiresses gestures of her miming a karate chop to her throat confused what she did and didn't want to say, and said instead, of course, the opposite. “Sex.”

 

“This entire conversation is a fucking train wreck.” Asami whispered burying her face in her hands next to her fiancee. 

 

“Eggs. Eat.” Senna chuckled, punctuating the sentences by placing the plates next to the embarrassed couple. “And when you’re done Korra I want you to put your glasses on.” 

 

Miraculously by this point Korra had already managed to stuff her face with half her meal. Asami froze, back straight, fork midair, watching the exchange with baited breath.

 

“I don’t have to wear them all the time.”

 

“I know honey, but Tonraq and I have some things to show you. _Both_ of you.”

 

“If they’re my baby pictures I will freak.” Still, she stood, pacing in a small contemplative circle as she retraced where she last had them.

 

“They’re in my purse.” Asami breathed. “By our shoes…in the bathroom.” Korra gave her that knowing crooked half smile. It somehow made Asami’s dread spike as she whirled closer and closer to more truths. When she was out of the room she felt Senna’s hand on her shoulder, comforting her with her daughter’s deep blue eyes. 

 

She picked at her breakfast in silence, unable to know what to say as Korra could be heard zipping back into the bathroom from the Bay, and Asami didn't have to cover it up. She padded back clutching sandy shoes and folding Asami’s purse closed with her specs perched on her nose. She put her handful on the desk by the door before returning to her fiancee’s side. 

 

“I love how you look in my jersey,” Korra smiled. Tracing the fire ferrets emblem between the heiress’ shoulder blades. She closed her eyes at the light massaging touch. 

 

“You know how I love it when they score baskets.” 

 

“I remember you shouting _sports harder_ ,” she smiled tracing her hand across Asami’s jaw, specs doing nothing to hinder the brightness of her eyes. It was intimidating and heart warming at the same time.

 

“Shut up and finish your food.” Korra snickered as she pressed a kiss to her temple before diligently returning to her stool. Scooping up her fork and raising it as she knotted her fingers back through Asami’s on the countertop. She beamed at her mother, content to remember this precious family moment for years to come until she blinked and Senna was gone.

 

She heard the Choos hit the island before her mother followed, jumping beside her husband and curling her fingers into his shirt as they looked across at their daughter, now fully, extremely awake. Her mouth open, her fingers still loose between Asami’s. Even looser on her fork it seemed, as it tumbled from her grip and she didn’t even seem to notice the splurge of egg that shot across the room that Naga lapped up happily. Asleep for the drama, awake for the chow as per usual.

 

“Korra say something.”

 

Her lips played through a myriad of words, not a sound made it past them until Asami squeezed her hand.

 

“Something.” Was all she managed.

 

“We’re a family of teleporters Korra.” Tonraq said the first coherent thing he’d said all morning. “Your mother and I have been each other’s familiars since we were children. When the war found us, we felt it was best to go into hiding in Republic City. We joined an underground research group. Other teleporters based here trying to figure this all out.”

 

“You knew I’d be like this?”

 

“There was a chance you could be normal, and safe in it.”

 

“Hiroshi,” she gripped tighter on Asami’s hand before she had the chance to flinch, “you knew what he was?”

 

“Not until it was too late. He blamed Jumpers for Yasuko’s death. Towards the end, a lot of us died. We thought it was best to shield you from that.”

 

“Did you know Aang?” Senna’s eyes grew watery, darkening in a way that Korra had never seen directly before. “He died on my birthday didn’t he?”

 

“He was a good man.” Tonraq straightened despite the weight Korra could now identify on his shoulders. “I’ve never seen a stronger Jumper.”

 

Korra felt Asami’s eyes on her, a look crossed her face that Asami knew came before the abyss. Both hands we’re in the mix between the plates now. 

 

“You’ve never seen me Jump.” Korra whispered. She freed a hand and inclined a finger towards the unlit candle on the top, and set the wick aflame. “There’s more to what we do than moving from one place to the other.” 

 

“Korra what was that?” Korra was staring intently at the flame she’d created with hardly a spark, only looking away when Asami pushed her hair behind her ear beside her.

 

“Tell them the real story. Here, this place. Kwongs.” They were stepping towards being completely free from lies, for now the relief out weighed the fear of what Korra would do if she knew. Her fingers traced over her ring, she looked down on their link and smiled. “It’s a good one.” 

 

Korra smirked through her panic, knowing she had the engineer by her side to back up the most insane story she had ever heard, and now she could finally share it. She started from her first jump, being called into Varrick’s lab and her first missions and Kuvira, all they way forward and until her timeline folded back. Asami studied their faces intently, counting as high as two minutes between some blinks. Occasionally Senna’s expression would soften when she learned that once again Asami had been there when she could not, taking care of her. 

 

“Time travel.” Senna whispered.

 

“I can control it but I probably shouldn’t use it anymore. I’ve met with my past lives and travelled further than anyone I’ve ever met in a single jump. It’s been a crazy year.”

 

“And you’ve never encountered Paladins before Gaza?” 

 

“Other than Hiroshi, no. But somethings coming… they were experimenting on Jumpers.” Senna clapped her hand over her mouth. 

 

“It’s starting again.” Tonraq paled, even further than he was already if that were possible.

 

“Asami,” Senna flashed and returned with a lock box, a key already around her throat in the keyhole, “One of the last things we did was collect all the intel we could from your father, and other agents.” Red steel arched back and Asami looked at the flat black floppy disks inside. “These may be of use now.”

 

“To what 1999?” 

 

“Says the time traveller.” Asami smirked. Tracing her fingers over the matt plastic, “I always loved these. So did dad.” she bit her tongue and lifted the disk to eye level, “They should still work,”

 

“But they’re encrypted. There’s profiles of a few Jumpers that are legible but most everything else is blacked out.” 

 

“I think we should call Varrick. I’ve never been any good with codes.” the engineer admitted. 

 

“I think we should call everyone.” Three sets of eyes trained on Korra, “If war is starting. They’re going to need to know. Tenzin. Lin. Suyin. Their families are in the cross fire.” 

 

Mutual agreement passed silently between them, and slightly shell shocked from the direction their breakfast had taken, Asami watched as Korra gathered clothes and agreed to meet her parents back here in an hour. She was still sitting at the kitchen island when Korra emerged from a quick de-sanding shower.

 

“Baby?” she couldn't ask whats wrong, Korra knew there was so much wrong about this.

 

“Everything is going to change now isn't it?” She was sure Korra had just pulled on a chemise on the other side of the room, until her strong arms found their way around her. 

 

“Sweetheart.” Korra piled on the pet names when she was at a loss for words. Still Asami felt a shiver run up her spine at the contact of her lips against her jaw. “Everything will be okay.”

 

“Promise?”

 

“I’m the only one who can.” Korra punctuated her assurance by pressing a gentle kiss to Asami’s pale lips. The officer smiled against her fused lips, “You have horrible morning breath.”

 

“You have horrible conversation skills.” Asami countered, leaning back but still holding her short locks between her fingers, “ _Caught up in all the ughh…sex.”_ she mocked in a goofy voice.

 

“It’s the _morning_. Mornings are evil.” Asami’s grin faded the longer she admired Korra’s, their last night creeping up on her.

 

“I need to tell you something.” 

 

“Yippee more information,” Korra joked, but reading the heiresses expression made her brows draw together, “What is it?”

 

“Hiroshi thought Jumper’s killed my mother.” Asami’s head fell forward and Korra balanced it against her own, “I have the surveillance tapes on my computer. I can’t watch them alone.” Korra’s eyes searched endless emerald. Piece by piece the weight of her secrets were begin lifted from the heiress. 

 

“You can’t keep carrying this stuff Asami.”

 

“I know I shouldn’t ask-”

 

“ _No_. Of course you should ask. I’m here for you ‘Sami. I’ll watch them with you.”

 

“You’re parent’s will be here soon.”

 

“Tonight then. I’ll know when you do.” Asami took her into her arms and buried her face into the soft skin of her throat. “For better or worse.”

 

“Oh God you’re so cheesy.” Korra chuckled and kissed her temple.

 

“Get dressed. We’ve got a world to save.” 

 

XXX

 

One by one a mixture of solemn, confused and hungover faces arrived in Varrick’s lab. It took less time than Asami suspected, even Tenzin didn't take much coercing or convincing that his daughter and the same abilities as his father. His mother came too, Korra didnt know how to act when she saw her, those blue eyes felt intimately familiar on a deep level, and her weak old smile made her feel safer on a deep long forgotten level.

 

Mako clutched to his coffee like it was life blood as he listened to Senna and Tonraq and Korra describe the war. Kai shrieked at the word, before quickly slamming a palm over his mouth and blushing madly in front of his girlfriend’s father. 

 

Bolin nervously made small talk with Opal’s mother and aunt whom he had met officially for the first time. When Korra went into detail about what happened in Gaza the body builder looked like he was about to pass out. All the while, Varrick constructed a makeshift floppy disk drive to hook up to his monitors. 

 

When the moment of truth came, all eyes trained on the pixels that split, and split themselves again into files and documents. The top left corner of each page was a photo, aged around twenty years, and if the subject was unlucky, bold red type smeared their face with the words “MISSING” or worse “TERMINATED”. 

 

“These haven’t been updated since we stole them in ‘11, but thankfully not by much.” Senna began, “Longshot died in an explosion in the financial district. The Paladins had a base there and he was infiltrating from the inside. We think he was discovered and it ended badly.” Senna’s voice softened and her eyes trained on Asami’s, “Jet is still missing but,” her throat closed, unable to continue. Tonraq took her arms under his large hands and continued for her. 

 

“He doesn’t seem like the kind of person to just disappear and not say anything.”

 

It sickened Korra flitting from face to dead face. Her heart felt like it was leaking from her chest. The more she read, the hotter her head became. 

 

“Katara, Jumper dead. No Longer of Interest.” Asami’s hand found her shoulder, but she continued reading, tears spilling down her cheeks, “Aang, TERMINATED. Shoot on sight order executed. Twentieth, June, 1993.”

 

“Azula Extremely Volatile Jumper, Kill on sight, MISSING with Familiar Ty Lee.”

 

“Toph Beifong.” Opal read aloud, “Powers purged. Thirtieth of June 2011, Familiar dead.” Suyin, next to her clapped her hand over her mouth as her eyes glittered. Korra heard her whisper, etched with so much pain it could have been a tiny scream. 

 

“ _Dad.”_

 

Korra followed her gaze, next to Toph, Sokka, TERMINATED, Extremely Dangerous Familiar.

 

The Officer didn’t feel the arms catch her as she fell. The void rose up around her, and she found herself behind the eyes of someone she never met. She was mourning Aang’s loved one, she felt his eyes turn blue and rage against the universe in his echo. It dragged to a harbour. Korra was faceless and voiceless watching from high as Toph throws herself against a veil of light she couldn't Jump past, and it hurt like hell to try.

 

_“Sokka!”_

 

_“Close the rift!” he shouted back, “I’ll get the machine!”_

 

_He was lithe for an old man, muscles still peeking out of his shirt, and wielding matching swords and guns. It was clear this dangerous game had kept him extraordinarily fit over the years. He leapt inside the shipping container. The doors slammed shut behind him and in that moment he knew he had been lured into a trap._

 

_Toph sucked in a breath, ignoring her bloody nose and taking a stance she aimed her fists towards the screaming light between them. It began to swerve and fluctuate at her ministrations, but her concentration could only stay pegged for so long._

 

_“I’m not locked in here with you!” Sokka’s voice pierced the metal, his indignant grunts of agony and the unmistakable of flesh sliced by metal, “you’re locked in here with me!”_

 

_Sharp papping breaks out from within the walls, the screams stop and the rift sinks into a halt, not before striking Toph off her feet._

 

_Korra watched her scramble, blind, helpless, small, feeling for the container and pressing her shoulder weakly against it._

 

_“Jump.” she panted, “Come on ya idiot jump.”_

 

_Nothing happened._

 

A jolt to Korra’s stomach brought her back to the present. Before she opened her eyes she felt Asami’s silken locks against them. 

 

“Korra _wake up!_ Please wake up!” She twists and sees the same rift of light crackling at the centre of the room. She collects herself, raising her hands and letting her eyes glow, the light sealed and flitted into dust. She slumps back, Asami falling down with her clutching her to her chest. 

 

Mako emerged from behind the couch he had fallen back from, coffee down his front and amber eyes wide.

 

“What - _the hell_ \- was that?”

 

“Aang’s still mad.” Korra breathed.

 

XXX

 

The heat did nothing for his scars. He felt them blister mid air over the Gaza strip a barrage of curses flitted through his mind remembering that the easiest way to conduct Paladin business in secret was under this veil of chaos. Still being underground eased the physical irritation some. 

 

Irritation seemed to be the word of the day. Leuten was not looking forward to the whining weeping excuse of this brain without success. He had lost track of mere children. Such incompetence would not stand. Not in the presence of Amon and the Lieutenant.

 

He did not expect the hubbub and lighting speed the paladin scientist possessed when he arrived in his lab however. The beds were still empty, the boys clearly still gone, and yet there was a measurable skip in this mans step as he danced from console to console.

 

“I do not appreciate having to come half way across the world to measure failure Professor.”

 

“Oh you will,” he cackled, almost madly. He turned on his heel, clapping his gloves together before yanking two briefcases onto the tables where there had once been bodies. 

 

“Out with it then. Your place in the company is under scrutiny. As is your worth.”

 

With twitching fumbling fingers the scientist unclasped one case, inside carved foam sat two sets of spectacles. The next was a full on face mask, complete tinted glass made to cover from cranium to chin. 

 

“Is this a joke?” Leuten sneered, no one was _stupid_ enough to even comment on his partner’s scars, certainly not in the same room as him, and yet this welp was begging for a bullet in the brain for this bold insult.

 

“Let me explain.” The Professor crowed, lifting some specs and presenting them to Leuten. “Wear these please.” After a moment of deliberation, and curving his outright rage, Leuten snatched them. “Now tell me what you can about this sample.” In his hand sat a petri dish of specs of blood. Through the shades, this was glowing, clearly and concisely. Energy readings sat beside them, off the charts with energy, potential, volatility. He snatched them and pointed to the samples and breathed.

 

“This is impossible!” He lifted the glasses, “Both of these are impossible.”

 

“Not impossible! We’ve designed these glasses to identify the enemy, in _any_ crowd! Including familiars!”

 

“If that’s the case, according to these measurements? Than the Jumper this blood belongs to is…”

 

“Incredibly powerful yes. A time traveller no less.”

 

“And these glasses, this tech, you’ve progressed nearly ten years in three how have you managed this?”

 

“This blood is a very special _key.”_ he professed puffing his chest out.

 

“I haven’t seen readings like this since…” Leuten locked eyes with the professor as he realised, “We have another Avatar.”

 

He snapped his head back to Amon, stoic and silent in the corner for once, blue eyes trained hungrily on the second case. 

 

“What does the Mask do?” 

 


	20. Chapter 20

Korra let her head hit vinyl with an exasperated thump. She closed her eyes, if only to block out the insanity of the last thirty minutes/year. Her hands settled weakly on Asami’s shoulders, the heiress clutching her middle and pressing her cheek against her clavicle she suspected she was thinking the same.

 

She barely listened to the wild deductions being yelled out to no one in particular by Varrick. He was already collecting apparatus to measure the Varrickule activity in the room. Asami stretched her legs and pushed herself tighter against Korra’s body, shivering not with panic; it was more like relief, sweet singing reprieve all to the tune of Korra’s steady breathing. Once she was content, she murmured, her voice laced with exhaustion.

 

“Do you think it’s possible that we’re crazy people in a mental ward just rolling around the floor in a straight jacket and everything that just happened is a weird coping mechanism?”

 

“I’d rather be here with you than _not_ insane.” Korra mused slotting her fingers into Asami’s locks and taking comfort in the silk. Korra tried to sit up, wondering why no one, not her mother, father, or supposed best friends had come to check she and her fiancee were okay after having collapsed in front of everyone. Still as she flexed her stomach she felt Asami put her weight on her and push her back down, sge mused that maybe they were letting the heiress have this private moment. “ _Nope_.” she mumbled, and snuggled her cheek further into Korra’s neck. She laughed and pulled her tight against her, feet planting squarely on the ground and inadvertently parting her legs around her thigh. 

 

Asami didn’t want anything to change, but she felt like it make her sound spoiled if she started whining now. Not that Korra could hold it against her, or would disagree at all, even now beneath her there was this aura emanating from her girlfriend. She was afraid.

 

“Varrick’s probably gonna want to study me.” she spoke, her voice etched with sorrow that the sweet moment had to end. Asami turned her head so her chin pressed onto Korra’s chest. Her calm emerald eyes stared up at her with conviction and swagger, a sly smile pulling her lipstick as she stated plainly.

 

“And he can, if he can get through me.” Korra could see the facade in her defensive glare, she was getting better at telling when Asami was holding off the future, dancing around it like the master strategist that she was. Tracing her knuckles along her jaw, Korra craned her neck and kissed her softly.

 

The rookie officer opened her eyes and turned her head up, awkwardly to discover that the attention of the rest of the room was drawn to the hole in the ceiling, and the gaps in the vinyl floor beneath it, in which grass had sprouted from nowhere. Already lush and bright with butterfly’s flitting in deft and confused looking patterns.

 

Katara had kneeled beside the mound, running long her fingers through the tufts as her hair fell from it’s ties and framed her face. 

 

Korra didn’t have to look at the files again to see that she was, and still is, beautiful. Without her Jumper being alive the Paladins no longer took an interest in her, for all intents and purposes by murdering her husband she was now normal, but it was clear that everything that passed over twenty years ago still weighed on her soul. 

 

Korra studied her eyes, while her own blues changed and shifted, with her mood or abilities or even who she was looking at, Katara’s were steady deep blue. Stable and calm, something to hold on to as the rest of the world spiralled. She understood then why Aang loved her. Loves her. 

 

“You’ve seen this before?” Mako asked squatting next to her and studying the older woman’s features. For all his awkward glory, occasionally the cop had his moments of brilliant deduction.

 

“Some rifts show us the past. Or the future.” Katara explained, bringing up her palm and letting a butterfly land there. “They leave scars.” Her gaze reached Korra’s, Asami felt those strong arms clamp tighter around her. “What did you see?”

 

“I don’t really understand it.” Korra admitted, her heart thumping thickly beneath the heiress’ ear. She could have began with the sequential things, the harbour, and a shipping container. The Jumper who was purged of her abilities and the Familiar who died. It felt more personal than that. Not a memory, more like a witnessing, she had been a phantom, alongside Aang, and it tore through them both, equally as harsh that their best friend had died. “I saw Sokka, and Toph. The night he died.” Katara looked down, plucking at the blades finally and circling them into her hand. In that moment she looked young again. As young and lost as Aang had first seen her. But Korra wasn't meant to know that. “I was with him too. Aang.”

 

“He’s your past life.” Katara asked, but Korra heard the questions hidden in her voice. _He still exists? He’s still watching? He still loves me?_ Loss ebbed from her face for a moment, and the young water tribe girl felt like she had, briefly, given something back. 

 

“Did he know then? When he was with you?” Korra asked.

 

“The man before him was Roku. And before him Kyoshi. It came in dreams.” Katara’s eyes skated over to Suyin, still leafing through her parents file, jotting down the words that weren’t blacked out as if trying to piece together a shredded half burned puzzle. “We didn't have time to get to the bottom of it. No one else we knew seemed to have them either.”

 

Every second looking at Katara reminded her that one day Asami could be without her, someone else would have her soul or presence as a memory, and Asami would have no one to hold. 

 

Jinora sat beside her grandmother, reaching out to the butterfly and letting them dance around her fingers, earning a smile.

 

Korra looked down, inspecting Asami’s pensive expression, eyes closed as she memorised this moment. 

 

“We’re gonna be okay.” Slowly she slipped from her arms, rewarding every few inches Asami relinquished with soft kisses. 

 

Katara rose and kneeled beside Korra, now sitting with Asami cross legged beside her, looking as though she might have wanted to draw a finger across her brow as if it were something familiar. Korra reached up gingerly, touching her fingertip against Katara’s own.

 

Without thinking her eyes began to glow. She flinched and lost herself, almost as if she were being shoved aside and replaced within their own skin. Korra didn't know what the other’s could see, but from their expressions it wasn't anything they had seen before. She let out a long restrained breath, and the voice coupled with it was not her own. 

 

“ _Aang_?”

 

“ _Katara_?” Korra’s hand on the vinyl at her hip clenched and tore the ground up around it. Her breathing doubled and chest fluctuated painfully. Her head throbbed and swam as Aang stared out through her eyes. “Katara I’m sorry.”

 

“ _Korra_!” Asami snapped, snatching her hand away from Katara’s and with her other she wiped at the blood that had seeped from her nose. Katara flinched out of her reverie, healing instincts taking over, and reaching for a handkerchief. Asami snatched her hand again before she touched her. “Woah-kay let’s not let Korra become possessed by the spirit of your dead husband.”

 

Korra hadn't the mind at that moment to tell her she was being harsh. She leaned forward forehead leaning all her weight on Asami’s shoulder. Twisting her fingers into her jacket as her head throbbed. 

 

“M’ears hurt ‘Sami.” she breathed. The heiress combed her fingers through her hair to reveal the thin trickle there.

 

_“Senna!”_ She held her neck up and urged her silently to hold her head up on her own, “Senna she’s losing consciousness!” She fell limp in her arms. Asami struggled with the want to keep her upright and the possible need to lay her down. “Korra _don’t_ ," 

 

“Lay her down. On her side.” Katara ordered. Asami’s arm went out to stop her from touching her again.

 

“ _Don’t-”_ she flushed hotly when she realised Katara was only trying to help.

 

“Check her pulse.” she added calmly, unperturbed by Asami’s anger. Laying two fingers below the scar on her jaw Asami tried to feel anything through her fingers that were now numb.

 

“ _I can’t_ -I can’t tell the difference between hers and my own.” It hurt to speak, now that her throat was contracting and tears threatening to spill over. Mako kneeled at Korra’s head and traded their fingers. She waited and listened in agony. Eyes darting from the detective’s to Korra’s to Katara’s.

 

“It’s there.” Mako smiled a little, “Just weak.” 

 

Asami held her face in her hands, dropping kisses on her forehead and cheeks,

 

_“You’re such a fucking liar.”_ she seethed to her softly.

 

Senna was there now, medical kit in hands throwing out bandages and tubes.

 

“Gloves.” Katara ordered. Korra’s mother handed them to her without question and with expert hands she inspected Korra, her eyes, her ears, glands and chest. 

 

“How?”

 

“There’s not a M.D. on my file for nothing Miss Sato.” Katara smirked wryly, Asami had found her lips smiling back without thinking. “She’ll be okay. Her body has just been through a lot. But her abilities are building up in her.”

 

“Did this happen to Aang?”

 

“This is all her.”  

 

With shaking hands Asami grabbed the medical wipes and cleaned the blood. Senna’s fingers combed through hers to steady her, a motherly hand touched her hairline as she soothed the heiress out of sobbing. 

 

“She just needs rest,” Senna urged, although her voice was just as shaken up as she felt.

 

“She shouldn't leave.” Varrick piped up, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. In fact he had been silent for since Asami asked him to load up the floppy disks. “We need to monitor her-make sure she doesn’t freak out and prevent her from sending someone back in time so they can live to death, what an assassination that would be-”

 

_“Okay._ ” Asami interjected. “I’ll stay with her until she wakes.” 

 

Senna curled her arms around Asami’s shoulders, the pair watched as Tonraq, Mako and Bolin jumped and dragged a makeshift bed out of crash mats and blankets. All the while families huddled together, as Asami tended Korra, Tenzin, Katara, Suyin, Opal, Bolin, Mako, Bolin, Jinora and Kai watched from about 10 feet away.  

 

“What now?” Kai asked.

 

“Should we stay together or split up?” Jinora gripped his arm, wordlessly showing her answer.

 

“Both.” Katara surmised. “Half here, half home, that way if they come for either there are enough jumpers to help escape.”

 

“And then what?” Opal stressed.

 

“As far as we know they’re not after us now.” Mako pointed out, “If Varrick can decipher these disks we might even know who to look for.”

 

Asami was barely listening, reeling still from how bizarrely the world had turned in just a few short hours. Exhaustion gripped her, but it wasn't enough to make her sleep. Keeping a hand on Korra’s warm chest she absorbed its rise and fall and measured its strength. With her free hand she cupped the side of her throat and attuned her finger tips to her fluttery pulse. Senna had managed to wipe most of the blood away, yet Asami found herself tracing drops of red here and there with her eyes, lingering still on the lipstick she had left on the corner of her fiancee’s mouth.

 

Slowly the other’s filtered away, nervous but with simply nothing left to do than live their lives with the knowledge that any second they would be persecuted for it. 

 

Korra’s family remained in the facility, while Varrick and Zhu Li studied Korra’s vitals, blood and surroundings, comparing them against their own.

 

Senna and Tonraq had long since fallen asleep, slumped against each other on the couch beside the consoles, when their daughter’s eyes fluttered open against heavy lids. 

 

“‘Sami?”

 

“How do you feel?” Korra tested briefly, find her neck weak in its ability to raise her ear from the mat. Her answer came as a disgruntled groan. “Alcohol really doesn't sit well with you does it?”

 

“..Dare you,” she mumbled, stretching and tugging and twisting into Asami’s arms, her face into her slender neck, “I’m a Water Tribe Jaeger Master.” 

 

“What happened?” Asami’s arms curled around her gratefully, without the worry that she might disturb her if she held on like she could evaporate at any moment.

 

“I don’t know. It was like Aang just took over, I guess its what it means to have a past life. In some way through me he can come back.”

 

“But your nose was _bleeding_ , and your ears.”

 

“I don’t know what to say. This is new to me too. ”

 

“Not even Aang got this?”

 

“I’m different from the others, I’ve been exposed to something bigger than they have and its just taking it out of me to adjust. That’s all.“

 

“What if you can’t though?”

 

“It will, it’ll balance out. The universe always does.” 

 

Asami could have told Korra that the universe was under no obligation to balance out or be _fair._ It had proved time and time again to the heiress that the universe could be a cruel place, indifferent to evening some cosmic scale. They could even have been locked in a tangent universe, doomed to implode and regress only to let the main timeline exist pain free, or at least with a different set of casualties that neither of them could measure. 

 

By rights Korra had too much power, and perhaps her fair universe would see fit to rip something from her to balance the scales. This train of thought filled Asami with dread.

 

“I hate seeing you hurt.” she mumbled feebly, curling the brunette’s hair in her fingers as she searched her face in the dark.

 

“It’s not a picnic for me either sweetheart,” Korra cracked her classic half smile before fighting her fatigue and raising her head to bring their mouths together. They took comfort in its lazy thrill, and Asami let it shrink her thinking capacity till it was only Korra. Which made what she said next difficult to process. “Where’s your laptop?”

 

 “Uhm,” She closed her eyes to concentrate, beyond Korra’s hands which had snuck their way into her shirt and was warming her skin at her back, “At the apartment I think.”

 

It was impressive how the half conscious, half injured Korra manoeuvred her way out of Asami’s hold. She was gone, for perhaps five seconds, the heiress didn't know whether to be pissed or scared. By six Korra was sat on the edge of the mat, fumbling with the latch of the computer on her lap

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I said I’d watch it with you tonight.”

 

“ _Korra_ -”

 

“Asami. You can’t make this all about me. You need taking care of too and I’m not going to ignore this.” Before she could protest she fed a hand into ebony locks and pitched down to give her a chaste kiss. “Now tell me how to open this thing.” 

 

Korra let her take the computer from her hands and she watched her as it’s backlight illuminated her skin. She half expected the engineer to smash it against the hard floor by the way she was looking down at it, brows drawn, lips in a tight unforgiving line. Silently she climbed behind her, propping her chin awkwardly over her taller woman’s shoulder, until she kneeled, her thighs either side of her hips as she wrapped her arms beneath her ribs.

 

They watched the player, paused on the opening frame that Asami had come to know pixel by pixel having stared at it for hours and hours since she’d found it. So used to it, it came as a shock to feel Korra against her back, squeezing her out of her languor and reaching for her fingers on the track pad. 

 

“I’m right here.” She didn't press however, expertly slotting her own darker fingers between Asami’s pale knuckles. The click didn’t seem so difficult then. 

 

Asami was glad then, that she was with someone that had been in the house before it was destroyed. She wouldn't have been able to open her mouth to tell her the room they were seeing was the old library, before it had been incinerated, minutes before. Yasuko was at her desk, writing, sketching, pouring over tomes of history books. The heiress remembered fondly the one beneath her fingers, the feint scrawl she could make out of the lion turtle painted on ancient paper was one of her favourite bedtime reads. She remembered asking her mother if she could paint a mural of the fantastical creatures on her bedroom wall, like Korra’s wall full of polar bear dogs and ridiculous penguins with four flippers. Her mother didn't even question it, and had set to work on templates that very night. 

 

“She’s as beautiful as I remember her.” Korra whispered, “Just like you.” 

 

Asami couldn't answer, her mother’s attention turned out of shot. She stood, not scared, more annoyed that she had been disturbed at this hour. 

 

“Hiroshi isn't here.” She told them, “You’d be better off coming back tomorrow. At a more reasonable hour I might add.” 

 

“This won’t take a minute.” The voice was deep, strong, and it sent a shiver coursing through Asami’s spine. Someone in the future was stepping on her grave.

 

There was a light, blue and ethereal, yet the only indication that it was there was its dim refraction off of Yasuko’s skin. She flinched, brows drawn together as she inspected the men in front of her. Because it was now men, between the first and Yasuko appeared a boy, wild hair, hands clasping a a remote, and a wrapped in a thick metallic vest, whirling his head around and trying to understand why he was there.

 

He screamed doubled over and stumbled seemingly out of a trance. “Wh-us going on? Longshot? Duke?” He whirled and faced the man. “ _You!”_

 

He dove and grappled stumbling back and falling between them. Yasuko stumbles back, wedged between the fight and the walls of books. She scrambles for something, anything she can use to defend herself, and raises a poker into the air. He leaps again arms around this mans neck he has him in a sleeper hold, and his back to the camera.

 

The older man twists and manages to utter, “The Paladins have invited you to Lake Laogai.” The voice came out rhythmic and hypnotic, the bomber stopped his struggling and levelled his gaze.

 

“I would be honoured to accept their invitation.” 

 

He spins, flinging one man across the room and snaps the poker to the ground with a precise kick of his boot. Yasuko’s shirt is in his grasp, and in the other hand he presses the switch.

 

Flames envelope the world, lighting up the screen. Asami swears she hears a _Wait! No!_ but it’s swallowed by the roaring angry flames that ripped her mother from this world. 

 

Now that it was over, Korra wrenched the screen down and smacked it shut.

 

“I know those words” Asami whispered, almost mindlessly. “I _would be honoured to accept their invitation.”_


	21. Chapter 21

“Asami.” The heiress was numb to Korra’s touch. Her eyes hadn't moved from the spot where the laptop had been, her fiancé scooted it as far as she could without moving too fast or far away. “I can’t tell if you’re freaking out or not.”

 

She was kneeling in front of her, blue eyes shining through the now dark gym and cupping her cheek. 

 

“I don’t know how I feel.” the engineer admitted, her internal feelers were coming up empty handed. From one moment to the next as she scanned her memories, she couldn’t actually place the moment her eyes became pressed into that perfect shoulder. While she didn't cry instinct let her slight hands to palm up Korra’s shoulder blades. Those beloved rough hands palmed over her ears, hissing a soft ocean into her psyche as she stroked.

 

_I would be honoured to accept their invitation._

 

Hiroshi had written these somewhere in her subconscious, in his blue prints his notes, scarred into his desk at the edge of a knife. The man had been obsessed and once again Asami had been too swept up to see his madness spiralling. There was always a dull ache from the loss of her mother, but it wasn't any worse, or any better seeing her die. It was just easier for her heart to identify. Her brain however was going a million miles in an unexpected direction. It was quick, she was gone in a flash and really she had only been afraid for a few seconds. But it looked like, she knew her killer, at least the man who had spoken to him, and was controlling him. That was definitely what had happened, there was no other way to explain the flow of events. One moment rage; the next, totally calm trigger happy suicide bombing.

 

If this Jumper hadn't planned Yasuko’s death then who did? What had Hiroshi deduced for himself to make him so violent? The only thing the video had done was raise more questions. Questions that couldn't be answered here. She detached herself from Korra, finding her feet and balance off of the impromptu bed.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“I have to go.” Asami surprised herself at how strong her own voice sounded, despite everything that had happened the engineer still found the will to carry on and do what was needed. 

 

“What?  _Now?_ Asami it’s the middle of the night, come back-”

 

“ _To bed?_ Like I can sleep after what we just saw!” She instantly regretted snapping, but had her back to Korra now, and looking at her would make her lose her resolve, she was sure about that.

 

“To talk.” Korra whispered softly, hyper aware that her parents were snoozing not twenty feet away. “I am not letting you carry this alone.”

 

“I am not carrying this, I’m figuring this out. This goes deeper than either of us imagined.”

 

“So let’s figure this out together.”

 

“I can’t  _do_ that.”

 

“Because I’m not some super genius and I obviously can’t keep up?” Korra couldn't help the sharp edge that took her voice as she grabbed her arm and turned her. They were falling into argument territory, and despite its obvious downward spiral neither of them could bring them selves back from the brink.

 

“Because you’re part of the problem!” Asami twisted out of her grip suddenly, but took a step toward her as she back tracked. “I didn't mean it like that!”

 

“Oh I know how you meant it.” Even in the dark the heiress could detect that dejected streak in Korra’s eyes.  _I’m a freak._

 

“It’s not you!” 

 

“Doesn’t matter - I’m not letting you go out there alone.”

 

“I have to leave just for a little while - just to process all this,”

 

“And I don’t?”

 

“ _You’re in danger_ Korra. Look at everything that’s happened today.”

 

“Coincidences. The Universe-”

 

“Doesn’t pander to the likes of two gay women! The odds are stacked against us and I refuse to believe that a greater force is bringing balance to the  _galaxy_ because that means there is nothing I can control!”

 

“So what if there isn’t?”

 

“Then it’s madness, everything is insane and the power you people have is  _terrifying!_ You alone can tear this  _Universe_ apart when you get upset, or scared or  _angry.”_

 

_“That’s what you are here for.”_

 

_“And when I die_ are you just going to destroy time and space to get me back?”

 

“You would if you could.”

 

“We’re not meant to be able to make these kind of choices Korra. You can  _show_  me all the future you want but it wont change the fact that  _time is relative._ Even knowing can change anything and everything.  _You taught me that!_ ”

 

“Would we be together without all the things that have happened?”

 

“Wow.” Asami took out her imaginary timeline in the back of her mind and crossed her mind, when would they ever have gotten together if she had never found the confidence in a future that was seemingly already written for them. Still it hurt to have Korra question it. As if she could have been with anyone else should the fates allow it.

 

“Asami I’m saying it’s a  _good thing.”_

 

 “Save it. I’m going.”

 

“Asami wait. I’ll take you somewhere, you can’t drive like this.”

 

“I’ll get a cab.”

 

“Asami!”

 

“Korra. Don’t… Don’t jump we don’t know where it’ll send you. I can’t have you going missing again.” The Rookie officer flinched, her hand slipped from her sleeve, and she listened to Asami step step stepping towards the exit. 

 

“Asami I love you.”

 

“I know.”

 

XXX

 

Returning to Tenzin’s place was a bittersweet mix of that homey feeling clumped messily with dread and despair. Still the family had taken a shine to Mako and Bolin after they had taken Jinora under their wing and she had come clean to her relatives about her abilities. Much to her surprise this was nothing new, although it had skipped a generation, much to her Grandmother’s relief. 

 

It was an easy decision to let Mako and Kai sleep in the living room, guarding the family and ready to evacuate the many non-jumpers Jinora lived with while Bolin did the same at the Beifong residence a few doors down. Opal lived with Huan, Suyin and Toph, her brothers and father were away at an economics conference and it was decided there were too many witnesses surrounding them for them to be targeted outright and they had very little to do with Teleporters anyway.  

 

One thing Mako enjoyed about being included in the family was being able to sit in a room full of people and never have to speak. They’d talk around him and he could still feel accepted, and while Bolin usually did all the talking for him, Ikki and Meelo were another caliber of endless information. 

 

They spotted him and Kai almost immediately, ignoring their sister and b-lining for the orphans, their shouts joined mid air and sounded a lot like, 

 

“MAK-KAI!”

 

Meelo tackled Jinora’s boyfriend while Ikki somehow managed to climb onto Mako’s shoulders.

 

“Giggles,” He acknowledged her with a cool nod and his own affectionate nickname, before looking down at Meelo, “Farticus.” 

 

“Admiral Farticus if you don’t mind Officer!”

 

“When did he get promoted?” Mako mumbled snarkily as he lowered Ikki from his shoulders.

 

“He conquered Ba Sing Se on that Redemption War Game last night and rewarded himself.” the girl explained, tugging Mako by the hand to the bed she’d prepared for him out of a couch and a plethora of girly cushions. 

 

“Rose petals?” The cop deadpanned.

 

“Clumsy!” Ikki blushed brushing them from the blanket, “I tripped with a vase and forgot to pick them up here. Nothing suspicious ha ha.” Ikki had never been so grateful to have her father interrupt her in that moment.

 

“Mako may I have a moment.” There was something about his tone that demanded respect, perhaps it was the context as well, fear hung above them all like a murder of hungry wolf bats.

 

“Sure thing Sir.”

 

They left the room, the Psychiatrist leading the Cop into his home office. He seemed pensive and tense, even in his own home, running his long hands over his bald head as he mused how to go about this.

 

“My mother wouldn’t let me ask this but I feel I must. I have a different set of responsibilities.”

 

“I get it. I would do the same, if I had, uh, kids. Family. What not.” Mako nodded and fought every instinct to bury his awkward chin into his awkward chest. Tenzin nodded in agreement and tugged on his beard before continuing.

 

“I’ve asked Lin to keep an eye on any suspicious activity, any  _more,_ suspicious activity. Regarding the old Paladin intel. Their old hide outs, murder sites that sort of thing. There’s only so much she can do, I would ask Korra but given the circumstances… A teleporter’s senses are for the most part better than most humans. Especially with regard to these matters.”

 

“What are you asking sir?”

 

“I’m suggesting you go back to work. Keep an eye out, dig in to the records Detective.My Father's murder. The dates we lost my uncle and Longshot. In those records there may be the key to deciphering those files. I don’t mean to ask you to go looking for trouble, and I don’t have to tell you how unsettling it is to have to spend you time constantly looking over your shoulder. But it’s harder to live with it without asking all the questions that need to be asked. Am I clear?”

 

Mako let his eyes scan the room for the moment, specifically the picture frames, that held beneath plexiglass, and between wood and steel were the smiling faces of everything he had always envied, that perfect family dream. Even though it wasn't really his, he would do anything to protect it.

 

“Yes Sir.”

 

XXX

 

_“We have a connection!”_ The Professor crowed at the full body pictogram on his console let up with veins, organs and bones, pumping, breathing living alongside it’s host; oceans away. “The blood is enough to let us sense what is happening to her.”

 

“Can we send anything her way?” Leuten asked. 

 

“It’s not impossible,” The Professor mused.

 

“Then make it possible,” Amon arched back in his chair, polishing his mask with care as he watched Korra’s heart pump.

 

XXX

 

It was midday, and Korra had neither slept nor heard from her fiancé. Her parents had woken, forced food upon her and Senna especially ripped into her for watching that awful video without them but her words fell on numb ears. Nothing could make Korra feel worse than she already did.

 

“ _This is fantastic!_ Zhu Lu! Come watch the thing do the  _thing!”_ She felt nauseous as Varrick took more blood. “Your healing abilities,” he was speaking to Korra now, but she was only half listening, “come from the trading of living molecules for dead ones— _from anywhere else in space and time._ You can take pieces from any place and bring them straight to you! And because it’s you! You are in a constant state of flux!”

 

“And at risk of tearing rifts open with your emotions.” Zhu Li deadpanned.

 

“ _Then why don’t I?”_ Korra snapped, “Why haven’t I destroyed the universe with my  _amazing freaking powers?”_

 

Varrick reeled at her sudden harsh tone, but recovered in classic Iknik style.

 

“Well you don’t want to do ya kid?”

 

Korra hung her head, at first ashamed that she had snapped so easily, then because deep down she knew she had a lot more that she could control, and then a resounding reminder that she had pissed her girlfriend off so much she had pretty much sprinted into an unforgiving winter night.

 

“I’m sorry.” she mumbled, feeling her nausea build suddenly she recognised what was happening and yelled,  _“GET BACK!”_

 

_She was herself, but not in that time, behind her own eyes, reliving her old times; she was back with Kuvira, eight or nine months ago. Kuvira had a habit of sleeping with her back to Korra, facing the wall, thinking out loud albeit quietly. Mostly about her work. Korra heard strips and lines about the_ Teleporter Ray  _how she wanted it to bring everyone together with this one universe altering ability._

 

_“Hey get some sleep; big day tomorrow,” Korra mumbled reaching over to sling her arm over Vira’s waist and press her cheek against her protruding shoulder blade, “Great Uniter.” She snarked proud of the nickname she gave the military scientist as she spiralled in and out of sleep._

 

Korra twisted and screamed aloud, her physical body barely managing to raise herself, take a step towards the consoles and fall, once again onto her hands and knees. She could barely sense the vessels bursting in her nose and blood trickling down her lips before her eyes shone bright green and she was elsewhere once more.

 

_She felt tiny palms under her thumbs, squeezing with all their miniature might as Korra opened her eyes. The child on her lap was maybe a year old, amber eyes staring lovingly up at her, freeing one pudgy fist to jam her hand into the Jumper’s mouth and feel her teeth. She was sitting cross legged, in a room of rich carpets, warm red walls and fine gold inlays, littered contrastingly with crayon sketches and plush dolls. Right then she knew she never wanted to leave this moment, she needed it with every inch of her burning soul._

 

_“Ngh!” Korra giggled with surprise, removing the hand before remembering to cradle his soft downy head of dark hair. “I’ll get you!” She crowed, gingerly she laid him down, lifting his teeny sweater and blowing on his darling bloated baby-soft tummy._

 

_“Korra?”_

 

_“Serious Officer Mom business going on, not for Satobot not it’s business.” She mumbled against skin before resuming her attack. The baby beneath her howling with sweet giggles._

 

_“MANA! MAGA! NGHGA!” Kuzon protested with words that always came close to sounding like Mama or Naga, Korra was never sure which._

 

_“Oh Naga would eat you too for being so_ adorable -  _scamp_!”

 

_It made her heart almost leap out of her chest to hear those noises, she was sure it did when Asami kneeled beside her, pawed the ponytail from her neck, careful not to get paint that covered her hands on Korra’s shirt, so she could blow a raspberry into the Officers neck._

 

_Korra toppled clutching her ribs, looking up at her wife through tears of glee. Asami bit her lip as she watched the scene, collecting herself just enough to speak._

 

_“Katara wanted your opinion on her wall.”_

 

_“Does she want Kuzon’s too?”_

 

_“Of course.”_

 

_Korra scooped the boy into her arms as she stood, grinning like a madwoman, bobbing didn't make her look anymore sane either. “You have a little something.”_

 

_“Right here?” Asami poked her nose and left a splurge of paint, “Or here?” another on her lips._

 

_“I’ll get it.” Korra dropped her dopey grin and before Asami could ask her lips were on hers, “This stuff tastes nasty.” she commented angling her head to kiss a little deeper the second time._

 

_“S’not for eating.” Asami meant it to sound more sarcastic but she had to admit Korra’s kisses still left her flustered._

 

_Kuzon squealed and tugged on Asami’s hair, indicating he was after a switch._

 

_“Alright Fusspot.” the heiress lifted her heir into her hands and cuddled him, regardless of paint and mess as she kissed his temple._

 

_She led Korra into Katara’s room, the five year old had her cheeks in her hands, leaving paint prints on them which for the moment she ignored as she concentrated on her wall, her master piece it seemed._

 

_“What’s cracking sweetie?” Korra kneeled beside her, stroking a finger to slip the hair out of her ice chip blue eyes._

 

_“Naga won’t sit still for her portrait!” she huffed pointing at the dog who was happily rolling around in paint and protective sheets._

 

_“What if we use a photograph?”_

 

_“Mom! That’s not real_ art!” 

 

_“Did Huan tell you that?”_

_“Doesn’t matter if its true!”_ She’s picked up her Mother’s arguing skills,  _Korra thought, knowing better than to pick a verbal fight with a professional Sato she decided to wrestle with Naga into position, earning an armful of hairy paint and a fateful of playful licks as Katara painted her with a completely straight face. All the while Asami watched until she was engrossed in what her own child was doing._

 

_After Naga had settled, Korra looked over, cocking her head as she tried to decipher what in the Earth Kingdom Asami was doing. Sitting cross legged from Kuzon, and Kuzon doing his best to stay upright as he engaged with his mother’s strange test, arranging objects between them._

 

_“Baby? I know sleep doesn't come easy, but you have to let me know when you start hallucinating…”_

 

_“No Korra this is psychology, Tenzin told me about it, you arrange three objects in front of the baby and what he chooses could determine the kind of goal he’ll value later in life.”_

 

_“Three objects like what?”_

 

_“We got Yuans representing money and financial prosperity. The pen, the pursuit of knowledge and this fluffy mini Naga.”_

 

_“Thats mine!” Katara piped in momentarily distracted from Naga, who sensed this and licked Korra’s face again._

 

_“You got the real one right here,” the Officer reminded, “Slobbering all over me!”_

 

_“Toys represent fun.” Asami finished, setting the doll in front of Kuzon, who stared at them while chewing his hand. “It’s not certain, and by no way proven or written about but Tenzin said it can be eye opening and kind of fun to fantasise about. Meelo’s apparently going to be this big artist but you know how Huan feels about his cartoons. It just made me curious.” She added with a light chuckle until she returned her attention to him._

 

_He made no noise, which was odd because out of the four of them he was usually the most verbal, one years old and on the edge of coherent speech. Still he sat, and assessed, playing with his fingers before working his legs under himself, and readying his stance so he could crawl. Korra heard Asami take a breath, which froze in her lungs as Kuzon swept the items completely aside, grinning, eyes bright as he did so. But he didn't stop there, he wiggled himself onto his feet and damn near ran into Asami’s chest, splaying his arms in an effort to hug her tight._

 

_“What does that mean?” Korra asked, inspecting her wife’s blank, confused expression from afar._

 

_She took a moment, and finally another breath before squeezing him up as he babbled and played with her hair. Looking up at her emerald eyes like they were the best things he had ever seen._

 

_“Asami baby are you crying?”_

 

_“No!” but her denial came out weak and choked and Kuzon was already playing with the tears on her cheeks, spreading the water and giggling as drips touched his own. “I didn't think he would pick me.” Her voice sounded like knowing this was everything she always needed to be whole, from her mother dying, her father betraying her, almost losing Korra all those times. Being chosen by this boy above everything else was more precious than anything she had already bought or could ever buy._

 

_“Why wouldn't he? We love you.” And like that Korra was_ Zip  _gone._

 

_…Time is relative. Even knowing can change anything and everything…_

 

Korra came to then, despite how much she wanted to stay in that room. Asami was elsewhere, doing God knows what. The blood had stopped as far as she could tell, on her back looking up at the tungstens alight above her she felt a final pull. This one was almost familiar in its presence, and it reminded her, unfortunately, of when she witnessed Sokka and Toph fighting for their lives on that fateful night four years ago. 

 

_Mako was walking into her new work, through the bull pen where she would share a desk with one of five new officers joining on Wednesday. Mako, detective that he was tucked some files under his arms and made his way back to his own office. When he stopped, spying a present, gold and gleaming on Korra’s desk._

 

Congratulations on your engagement! 

 

_Suspecting it might get swiped in the open communal space of the sheriff station he worked his fingers around it while balancing papers and coffee. He missed the wire hidden beneath clippings of reports, He couldn’t react when the gift lifted with a click and sent the incendiary charge alight beneath the desk. He didn't think at all that it would end this way. So quick and firey, almost like lightning._

 


	22. Chapter 22

 

At that point Korra had stopped screaming completely. Not that anybody could hear her either way. Her eyes were aglow with now a fierce piercing gold. She’d collapsed to her hands and knees,lungs heaving and burning her throat as her influence expanded miles.

 

All the while, nothing moved. 

 

She could feel hummingbirds frozen in the park outside Future Industries, the water of the harbour frozen without so much as a lick of ice to be seen, and yet the world held its breath, and Korra exhaled. 

 

The flames had already exhumed Mako’s left arm and half his chest, but at this point his oddly shaped eyebrows were as yet un-singed. This expansion of her mind however left her in a complete state of entropy, Jumping was out of the question, but the need to get everyone out before the station was inhumed was the only reason this new ability existed. 

 

Blood was pooling on the tile beneath her, dripping from her nose, past her lips and falling down her chin, but Korra could no longer sense the confines of her own body. Instead she felt herself cutting around the reality of her friend and pulling him close. He broke into her veil, panting, unable to scream from shock and too preoccupied by his fierce burns to understand what was happening.

 

Feeling helpless and petrified, Mako did the only thing his mind had any instinct to do; and called Bolin. In a stream of white he was yanked from the Beifong’s mid sentence and stood between the two bleeding Teleporters. 

 

“-my zipper once-MAKO?” He kneeled hovering his hands over his grunting brother, teetering on the edge of consciousness, as he bled and peeled from lacerations that went as high as his jaw. “Mako What-“ he gingerly cradled his head in hands too big to be thought capable of such a gentle act, cut off from his questions by the one word Mako could utter.

 

“ _Korra.”_

 

Finally he whirled, looking down at her, rigid hands and feet splayed flat to balance as she tried unsuccessfully to yank her colleagues from one place to the next - alive. And he could see them, it wasn't quite a screen or a portal but the way her influence balanced time and space allowed these two places to layer over each other in such a way that Bolin could have walked into the station without having to Teleport.

 

“Bolin _please_ -” Korra choked out, “ _Get them.”_

 

“But-” Hesitating only because the last of his family was dying at his feet.

 

“Go!” His familiar barked and spurred him into action.

 

One by one Bolin dragged the stiff, statues of the RCPD into Varrick’s so far top secret facility across town, trying not to imagine how this was happening or what would happen if he kept ignoring his bleeding friends to save these human popsicles.

 

“Bolin I can’t hold it much longer.” What Korra had meant as a scream came our breathy and weak. 

 

“Just two more Lin is locked in her office with some woman.”

 

“Get them out now!” Mako yelled his way in and out of consciousness. Bolin jumped, four times back and forth laying Lin and her accompanist on the couches, arms still raised, passing files between them. Safe and sound, Korra collapsed, face smacking ungraciously into the pool of blood and her mother, who had been hovering nearby throughout the entire endeavour caught her shoulders and turned her on her back. 

 

Hot wind flayed from the veil before closing, miles away, the windows of RCPD shattered, the walls became scorched with flame and the sprinkler system went off, dousing a host of inanimate objects and thankfully - no humans. 

 

Bolin returned to his brother, looked out to the fifty odd people he had just saved and shouted.

 

“ _Somebody help him_!”

 

“Bolin.” Korra extended a hand and a paper thin voice, reaching for Mako’s rather than his, Senna and the brother angled them both so she could touch him. 

 

“Are you sure you can do this?” Senna asked.

 

“No.” and with that she latched anyway, eyes blue, hand glowing, the same ethereal light swallowing Mako’s wounds.

 

XXX

 

Asami felt tiny in the business park that hid Varrick’s clandestine facility. The buildings were looming grey and seemingly empty. The roads in-between even more so, hugging herself, feeling rain dust her face and ice bite her lips she marched as her thumb hailed a private car from a discreet respected company on her phone. 

 

Teeth worried her lip to keep her emotions from getting the better of her. Every blink brought her back to moments before, the fear on her mother’s face, her screams, and the dejection on Korra’s. While she was an excellent sparring partner, for arguing when not at her best she’d fold like a leaf and say the absolute wrong things. The comment that they wouldn’t even be together if not for this madness stung the most. Almost as much as reflection on how long and hard she had loved Korra to begin with, despite knowing Korra had loved her too it still felt like a twisted isolated lonely affair of sleepless nights and one sided fantasies. 

 

She had every answer to every question she had ever asked herself, what did her lips taste like, her chest beneath her hand, what she looked like snuggled up between her legs in the mornings, the weight of her fingers, the smell of her neck, she knew the answers like her own muscles, and still she knew she would _always_ want more.

 

Stepping into her car she acknowledged the driver with a nod and an automatic address. She didn't realise it was the harbour apartment until the last second. She berated herself for a moment, she had stormed away to think and it seemed all her brain was capable of was fixating on Korra. Powerful, beautiful, time bomb Korra. 

 

She collected herself, mopped the tears that had dribbled down her cheeks, charged the car to her personal account with enough of a tip to make it seem like it wasn’t an embarrassing mistake to take her here. She hated to admit it but she hated sleeping there alone; it had always been a painful experience.

 

_I love you._

 

_I know._

 

She let the evening play out in her head as the elevator took her to the penthouse, Korra’s face so sure and unrelenting as she watched her go. Asami knew then just how invested she was in this woman, how she would love her forever, and had to make sure that Korra was around to see it. The way she bled and keeled over and broke reality in just a few short moments was incredible, but also completely horrifying. 

 

If the universe was working through her, it certainly paid no heed to how much it damaged her body. Sure enough it could latch onto the next host and destroy them just as easily, the worst part about it was that Korra didn’t seem to mind, trusting an outcome that had no real right to happen. 

 

Asami had no tolerance for blind faith, and finally set her mind to the task of piecing together her next move. 

 

The Paladins had to be destroyed. 

 

Accomplishing this Korra would have to be taken away from all this too. Maybe a vacation, somewhere warm, a place to soothe the cockles of her heart and let the spirit heal. She had a hard time putting a place to what she wanted. 

 

She looked out the window, the Sun wouldn't be up for hours yet. She kneeled on the bed, atop the comforter listening to the silence and the ocean in the distance, almost forgetting the teleporting wonderdog and her proclivity for knowing exactly when the heiress needed her. She took Korra’s side of the bed and keened sorrowfully, tail wagging, eyes bright. Asami smirked when she thought of how her father would react to what Varrick had created. She cupped her ears and brought her muzzle close.

 

“Such a sinister evil creation aren’t you fluffers?” Naga licked her face in response, “I will shave you for this.” She threatened scrubbing her head with her nails. The puppy buried her head into her chest and Asami let her arms take the comfort she had to offer. The Engineer leaned forward and buried her face in her pelt, tensing slightly as Naga snuffled and inspected her betrothal necklace. 

It came as a shock to feel this moment merge with the morning, Asami woke with a face full of fur and no memory of even lying down. 

 

She switched her clothes, switching jeans and blouse for chemise and slacks. Clawing her hair into a tighter tail and reapplying her war paint. She looked ready for work even if she didn't feel like it. She huffed when she tried to twist the top button up, realising that Korra had pinged it off a few days before her hiatus. Biting her lip and forcing down the memories of Korra tugging down her bra and biting the mouthful underneath as she changed it for something that _hadn't_ been torn into in a fit of passion.

 

Yanking open the wardrobe parting the dresses Asami spied something she thought she’d thrown out with the trash months ago. The shoe box of Hiroshi’s, the prototype of the first electroshock glove. The papers and letters that nested it. Gingerly she lifted them out, pushing aside the glove and inspecting the pages in the light.

 

They were old, older than his arrest that was for sure, they looked almost like text book pages. Precise, refined sketches of chemical equations surrounded by perfectly aligned passages. 

 

_Spirits. Molecule Manipulation. Familiars._ Asami’s eyes caught the buzzwords and filtered for anything else that made sense. This was Varrick’s research twenty years before Varrick started it. 

 

_The_ _Avatar is a completely perfect and impossible strand of their kind. While they can be stopped, they are difficult to incapacitate or even kill. Their line can be traced back throughout recorded history. At least one in each generation, it is believed that they are the only humans that can in all certainty reincarnate. While ending the cycle of reincarnation is possible, it has not been discovered._

 

_Ending their kind is the key to assuring the safety of our physical universe._

 

This was Paladin paraphernalia, mixed with facts about Jumpers, their different blood, their strong hearts, and bodies that ran five or six degrees hotter than most humans. Avatars could not only travel the world, they could twist it to their will. Still while skating that line between god and man there didn't seem to be much of an example of them abusing their power. No one ever seemed to live long enough to try. Roku, killed aged 38 luring enemy fire from Familiar, their was a picture of a world war two pilot, young looking, long beard, arm around a comrade. Kyoshi, killed aged 45 protecting Familiar, her photo was gorgeous, soft focus cheek balanced on her hand as she smiled through makeup. Asami recognised that mischievous glint in this super stars eyes, she hated that she did. 

 

Kuruk, died, suicide aged 25. _Kuruk’s Familiar was comatose for three full years before this Avatar took his own life. It was believed that this disconnection from his Familiar caused the six month hiatus between death and rebirth into the next host body. Disposing of the Soul Guardian prior to ending the Avatar may be key in ending the cycle._

 

If she didn't feel sick before she did now, Korra’s kind had been hunted for over a hundred years, as had her own. Familiars were a breed of their own, they weren’t just the people Teleporters loved; they needed them to survive. The superheroes would collapse in on themselves. 

 

And Hiroshi had this, hell he’d studied this his notes were all over this scrap of photocopied text book. Photocopied. This was a mass produced obscure thing for anyone to hold let alone to recreate and xerox and give out to its soldiers. His notes. His notes were telling of something else entirely. There was no reading between the lines, these were extras. Notes from something else. Short. Sequenced. Nonsensical numbers and letters. Passwords.

 

Hiroshi knew Korra was the Avatar, even then. He knew what Asami was to her. In a twisted way Hiroshi tried to save his own daughter, by murdering the target that was on her back. The Paladins had sold him down the river for ruining their chance to end the cycle there and then but at least his heir was safe.

 

She hurried through the apartment, dressing, collecting anything that remained of Hiroshi’s research. When she hit the reception she stopped, keys clenched cold in hand something bright caught the corner of her eye. A glowing screen and rolling bi lines.

 

When she turned her heart dropped. 

 

_BREAKING NEWS Explosion at RCPD. NO BODIES FOUND - DEAD OR ALIVE._

 

XXX

 

Leuten hated smoking. His teeth were growing yellower by the minute and inch by inch his crawling skin dulled and pulled towards the sucking motion of his mouth. Still there was no better excuse to spend extended periods of time outside loitering. He could only eat a sandwich so slow. Still he waited for the Sato girl to leave her house. He hadn’t seen her since she was nine but was irrefutably Hiroshi’s daughter. It was in the way she held herself, the fair skin against the jet black and that strong will in her eyes. 

 

The apartment reception opened at 13:07, and the heiress stepped out. Papers stuffed beneath her arms, keys jangling from her fist. She looked distracted, twitchy as she waited for the concierge to pull her Satomobile around. He adjusted his glasses and watched her glow. She was steeped in Jumper energy. Brighter than any Familiar Leuten had ever seen he almost dropped his cigarette as he watched. 

 

His muscles seized when her head faced her, she was bright in the visors, but he knew right then she was looking right at him. _Clever girl._ He couldn't help but think it. 

 

The encounter lasted but a second, her car was there, she’d switched with the driver and sped off before Leuten could even think of pretending not to watch. The moment after his own unmarked car pulled in front of him.

 

“What do we know?” Amon was already in the back, polishing the mask proudly over his lap, concentrating on a particularly stubborn smudge over the clasp.

 

“It’s her.” Leuten confirmed watching his boss tug the mask over his head. Amon sat silently for a moment. As if interacting with an interface that his companion couldn't see, yet he swore he spotted a shudder score through him.

 

“What is it?”

 

“By tonight Leuten. We bring everything forward.” 

 

XXX

 

Asami parked on the still empty street. She honestly wondered if she left the car in the middle of the street no one one be there to crash into, drive around or leave a passive aggressive note on the windshield. 

 

Still as she got out and rounded the corner to the entrance only she stopped. Bolin was stood there, only it was someone who kind of looked like Bolin. Chin to chest the Jumper looked drained, none of his bubbly aura was shining through. This was a Teleporter hanging on by a thread.

 

“Mako?”

 

“He won’t wake up.”

 

“ _Korra_?”

 

“She won’t sleep.”

 

She stepped towards him, without thinking she gripped his shoulder and he lifted his head. 

 

“Were they there?” He glared at her, not angry, just exhausted. Now she was closer she could see the blood on his hands.

 

“Go inside.” Was all he could manage. It was crushing to see Bolin like this, other than Korra, Asami had never comforted anyone before. She did the only thing she could think of, whipping up her phone and calling her assistant, she took his hand and slapped the ringing phone before raising his muscular arm so it touched his ear.

 

“Do not hang up,” she ordered. Sure enough Opal’s panicked tones filtered through the speaker, incredulous and worried, so full of care that Bolin’s mouth couldn't help but twitch. “Opal, you’re on with Bolin.” She said it loud enough so she could hear. 

 

“H-hey.” he swallowed and shrunk as he wrapped his free arm under his chest and clung tightly, “Mako got hurt. Bad. I don’t…I can’t.” Opal cut him off, Asami couldn’t tell what she was saying but he blinked and a tear made its way from his eye. Embarrassed he covered them, “You don’t have to-” he swallowed thickly, before adding, “ _Okay_.” He looked like he was about to hang up when he caught something, both of them silent for a time, before he whispered back, “You too.”

 

His hand went limp and he shrank against the wall, it was only thanks to Asami’s master dexterity that she caught her phone before it hit the ground.

 

“She coming?”

 

“Five minutes.” he choked. 

 

“I’ll let you know if anything changes.” Asami couldn’t wait a second longer, yanking open the door not expecting Bolin to speak again.

 

_“_ You know I wouldn’t have her if not for you ‘Sami. Thank you. _”_ Asami managed a smile at him and whispered.

 

“I could say the same to you.” He barely nodded as she walked past him, the need to see her fiancé outweighing the want to comfort him. She did what any good CEO would do and delegated the task to her personal assistant.

 

The officers were surrounding Mako, Lin guarding his head and chewing her nails while a woman in blue touched a comforting hand on her arm. Shirtless Mako had some gruesome scars, which was fascinating in and of itself seeing as he was wounded a little over an hour ago. They seemed to have split, younger half, worrying over their captain and reeling from what had just happened, glued to the news on their phones and wondering who exactly to call for this. The older half Zhu Li had shown them the files, from over twenty years ago. There was no other way to explain what had happened other than the truth, and these officers had been waiting for this story since Aang’s mysterious and unexplained death.

 

“ _Sato!”_ Varrick crowed, hair wild, eyes more so, “You won’t believe the things!” 

 

“Where’s Korra?” She asked, more or less knocking him off of his train of thought he twitched and pointed his nose towards the consoles, Tonraq and Senna were glaring at the screens with a mix of envy and concern. She marched over, looking at them confused until she saw what they were looking at.

 

“No one can get in.” Senna explained. “She’s even blocking Zhu Li.” Forehead against her knees Korra sat hunched inside the box. Bloody hand prints on the ground either side of her.

 

“What are they?” Speak of the devil, Zhu Li had slipped the papers from Asami’s hands.

 

“Hiroshi’s passwords.” Asami meant to say more but she’d already abandoned explaining to run to the structure at the centre of the facility. 

 

“ _Holy hell._ ” Varrick exclaimed, sprinting on his endless reserves of crazy science energy.

 

“Can you hear me?” she touched the wall, almost certain she was leaning against the same spot Korra was. Yet still she heard nothing. She turned to see Tonraq nodding from the consoles, Korra had moved. If she was stood with her she would have seen that Korra was now facing the wall. 

 

She heard Senna’s gasp before she knew what had happened. Before she felt prodding in her arm, and she flinched, a tan hand protruding from the wall.

 

She knew it was Korra’s from the way it held her arm, gentle warm. She moved and found her hand and yanked her in. _Through_ the wall like it was jelly. 

 

“I can’t leave you alone for five minutes can I?” Asami whined crushing her in her arms.

 

“Then you know what you need to do then don’t you?” Korra murmured back her face in her shoulder. “Is Mako okay?”

 

“Still unconscious but Lin is with him.” 

 

“He was right in the middle of it. He picked up a bomb on my desk, it looked like a present for me…They were after me,”

 

“Didn’t you save all those people?” She felt the Officer immediately tense up, she pulled away, ignoring the question and brushing the hair out of Asami’s eyes.

 

“How was your adventure out there?”

 

“I found out what you are. Why you’re special.” She traced her knuckles across Korra’s jaw, a pattern her fingers had already learned but loved to follow anyway. First the jaw.

 

“Is it because I can turn my eye lids inside out?” The heiress chuckled as her thumb graced her eyebrow, back down following a dot to dot of her scars, cheek to collar.

 

“Be serious.”

 

“I don’t want to. It got serious while you were gone ‘Sami.”

 

“You can go through walls now?”

 

“Yeah, you know what that means?”

 

“You’re dead and we’re all ghosts?”

 

“We could honeymoon in England and freak out the people at platform 9 and 3/4” The Engineer let the levity take her, laughing and falling into Korra’s arms and holding tight. Korra tried and failed to stop the sharp gasp of pain she emitted when Asami squeezed her. She let go by instinct, a wave of concern flooding back.

 

“What?” Then she saw it, not scars but deep purple bruises protruding by the tiniest of margins from her shirt. “Who did this to you?” Korra looked at up her, swallowing thickly. “I’ll _cut_ them.” The Water Tribe girl laughed and wasn't swayed by the notion that Asami was serious. 

 

“I stopped time and healed Mako. It did a number on me. I think I broke a rib.” 

 

“You have to stop doing this Korra.” 

 

“I can’t help it. They just happen without me knowing half the time. It’s not like I’m trying to beat myself up here.” 

 

Asami stood reaching for the camera and yanking the wire out, “Show me.”

 

“What can you do?”

 

“Show me.” she ordered, kneeling beside her.  

 

“You just want me to strip for you again.” Korra chagrinned already she was fighting at the buttons, from the bottom, Asami helped from the top, parting her shirt and tracing her fingers over the mottled brown. “Eeeaahhaha,” Korra made the odd pain soaked noise as she stretched her arms back for the shirt to fall to the ground, “Everything hurts.”

 

“S’what you get,” without skipping a beat Asami pitched down and kissed her bruise on her chest. 

 

“You’re going to _kiss_ it better?”

 

“Ancient Chinese secret.” Asami deadpanned, finding a clearer patch of skin beside her stomach scar and blowing a raspberry on it. Korra doubled over with laughter, howling, throwing her head back, it was so surprising she forgot her pain and was thrown into the memory of her flash forward. She felt the cool vinyl soothe the bruises on her back as she looked up at her. 

 

“You’re such an idiot I love you.” it came out between snickers, Asami sat back on her heels to watch Korra wipe giggle tears away from her eyes with the heel of her hand. Meanwhile she found her own tugging Korra’s left, interlacing their fingers and thumbing her engagement ring.

 

“You too.” Her free fingers were running their tips on the plain of that one long scar, soothing and instinctual as she let herself be kissed. Balancing alongside her so she could touch but not put too much weight on her. “Do you want to come out now? Let someone check on you?”

 

“Not at all.” Korra punctuated the statement with a kiss to her throat. Asami couldn't help but comb her fingers through those short locks and enjoy her there.

 

“Do you want me to tell you what I found out about your reincarnations?”

 

“Later. I don’t want to think about me right now. Let’s talk about you.” And like that she angled the conversation to where Asami had been avoiding all day, “What you saw this morning, how are you feeling about it?” 

 

“I don’t think-”

 

“Remember I am the vulnerable one here; someone took my shirt off.” She disarmed her with humour and soft kisses, tugging her body close. “I know you miss her.” Asami stiffened, as long as she had known Korra she was sure, even to herself she barely spoke of her mother. It wasn’t until Korra pulled back to look her, she knew she had let it slip somewhere along the way. “You sing like a canary in your sleep Miss Sato. You’d suck as a spy.”

 

“Doesn’t help that I’m sleeping with the enemy.” Sarcasm was difficult to muster when her walls were falling down, “She wasn't expecting it. I mean who could guess _that.”_ She let her forehead fall and lean on Korra’s collar, “She didn't deserve it.”

 

“She was leverage.” Korra deduced, “The Paladins killed her, framed Jet, gave Hiroshi a reason to join the war.”

 

“The Paladins clearly brainwashed that boy.”

 

“Didn’t it seem a little too obvious? It can be explained either way Jumpers framing Paladins, Paladins framing jumpers. The only thing your father could deduce for certain from that was that Jet had impossible power, and our kind was capable of incredible and horrible things. If someone like that took you from me even by accident I don’t know what I would do.”

 

“I know you’re not condoning what he _did to you_ -”

 

“I’m understanding why he would. There’s being good at dealing with chaos and best way to deal is to prevent it. He thought he was preventing something.”

 

“It still wasn't right.”

 

“Yeah well right and wrong gets blurred when your missing a part of yourself.”

 

“Bolin was right you need sleep.” It was almost as if being reminded of it made her even more exhausted. She nestled and stretched against her, making cute grunting sounds as she stretched her many bruised muscles.

 

“Stay with me this time.” 

 

“Coming from you,” Asami murmured settling beneath her, ignoring the hard floors and ghosting her thumb from her forehead down the bridge of her nose. Up and down, over and over, as soft and easy as her own breaths. 

 

“What’s that? It’s nice.”

 

“My mom used to do it to me.” She watched Korra’s face light up, even with her eyes closed. Sleep already taking her she mumbled,

 

“I can’t wait until we’re parents.” 

 

Asami’s heart skipped around like crazy at that. A part of her had thought Korra would wait a few years and completely fumble around the idea of having kids before working up the courage to embrace the idea.

 

“Me too.”

 


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me sooo long and I'm totally procrastinating my third year of uni heh heh plz dont fail future me :,(   
> Anyway I feel like I can finish this in the next chapter this is why I've changed the thing. All my plans are coming together (purses fingertips, strokes cat)   
> I upped the rating from a T to an M just to be safe by ykw I felt like writing smutty with fluffy and angsty muahahah sue me internet  
> Pop a Comment if you feel it, or don't I'm a writer not a cop.  
> ENJOY!

_Aang hadn’t had a drink in over three years. It wasn’t a recovery thing, he just hadn't had the time as of late. Still, weighing a bottle of scotch in his hands that he had stashed in the family box twenty one years ago, he couldn't help the welt of pride that it had survived. Along with the two others, aged 17 and 19 respectively, nestled in the box of bison baby toys, water tribe family heirlooms, his foster father’s prayer necklace and recipe for fruit pies._

 

_His son was graduating top of his military class. While they had disagreed about Bumi going into the army at all, knowing it was everything his son wanted he was looking forward to supporting him. He’d dreamed of sharing this bottle for years, and Korra was too, decades after._

 

_He tucked it into a grocery bag and jumped expecting to find Katara still fussing over her hair loopies in their bedroom. Her pashmina was an ocean blue that made her eyes shine. After so long, they looked at him in the way that still made his stomach do backflips. When he jumped there however, it dropped completely into his toes._

 

_Her left eye was sporting a bruise that was blackening every second, she was grappling with a man who had smashed through the window. He acted without a word, jumping, flipping soles of his feet parallel with the ceiling, taking the man’s head in his hands and flinging him into the armoire. He shrieked and stumbled, as Aang turned and hovered his hands over his wife, still barely clinging to the bagged up liquor bottle. Katara gingerly touched her bruises with a calculating hand, swelling just starting to form. She worried briefly that she wouldn't have enough time to cover this before Bumi’s ceremony._

 

_“Katara Sweet-”  Her eyes widened as whatever glass had survived the first dive through was knocked out by a second assassin._

 

_“Aang!” He whirled jumping forward only to be shocked back, the pain howled through him, more acute and crushing that anything he had ever experienced._

 

_“Leuten!” the man in the armoire snapped, but it was too late._

 

_He felt like his larynx was being crushed, on his back, more than winded he knew he only had seconds of consciousness. He grabbed Katara’s ankle and jumped her far away._

 

_Her knees hit sand and her hands barely caught her weight before she ended up with a face full of dirt. Aang’s last conscious memory was the ocean lapping at his loafers._

 

_“Katara I don’t know what’s happening.”_

 

_His heart palpitated, and he broke into a seizure. If he had the mind he would have been devastated at the noises Katara was making. Words no doubt but he couldn’t hear them over the fire, and the ocean, the earth and the wind. He had the rest of his life with her, he wanted the rest of his life with her. They were so close to his happy ending. He convulsed and twitched, cool hands breaking his visage as the love of his life leaned down and kissed him._

 

_Miles away, a baby came into this world, screaming like her life depended on it._

 

Korra tugged her head back so fast she thwacked it in the box wall. Wincing she looked down at Asami, her entire body slick with sweat. She tried not to grunt or move too much, scrunching her eyes shut and trying to still her heart and slow her breathing. Echoes of those bruises still lingered on her chest and in her mind. Somehow clinging the heiress closer to her made them feel less real. 

 

She adjusted one arm to brush the hair away from her fiancee’s sleeping face.

 

Asami woke to her fingers smoothing the curve of her ear, and tense strong arm clutching her to her chest. She felt the ache in her bones that came coupled with a short and terrible nap.

 

“Korra?”

 

“Don’t.” As if to illustrate her point, her aversion to discussing what had her petrified to the core, she pressed her lips lightly to Asami’s forehead. She stretched against Korra gratefully, it was the only part of their morning routine she could do. Hips arching pressing into her before she realised the effect she was having on her. Korra’s pupils were blown, flushed to her neck but somehow she couldn't bring herself to move either way. Asami became more and more susceptible to Korra’s deep stare, while her eyes were locked the blue of iris’ danced and shifted breathtakingly. 

 

Asami smiled at her expression, no matter how much time had passed she loved the intense effect she could have on her. She could feel Korra’s stomach tensing against her own as she struggled and failed to level breathing. She was thrown back in that instant to her first time with Korra, her expression was almost exactly the same, brows even, mouth slightly open, tasting the pheromones mingling in the air between them. This was coupled with the sinking idea; knowing they shouldn’t be doing this, in a box with whoever just outside. Still, looking down between them Korra’s skin was glistening in the hard light. Her scars and bruises were begging to be kissed better. Hell it was inevitable. 

 

Asami took her own cue, working her hands on her dark bare skin, between her shoulder blades. She plucked at the clasp biting her lip as she watched Korra’s heavy lidded eyes shut and she aimed her mouth under the heiress’ jaw. The cool of her betrothal necklace tapped against her chin and the band on the edge of her mouth. Kissing it then was as sweet as the first time she had tied it on the heiress, _rest of their lives,_ filled her head like a mantra, _however short that may be._ The thought was equally thrilling and devastating. Korra let her muscle memory take charge, clicking into that primal place and moving her trained hands to unclip the buttons of the heiresses shirt.

 

She couldn't help but become so enthralled by the perfect skin underneath the silk and satin, tugging it, bunching it aside to cup and bite the pert nipples underneath. As she bit Asami squirmed with delight and barely bit back her sigh, Korra reacted and she felt a loss until she straddled her, using her thumb and index finger to ride through the remaining buttons as she squashed any more of the heiresses noises with her demanding mouth.

 

The only sounds she could hear now, she could taste on her tongue, Asami’s sigh, her voice, thin, wrapped around an endless stream of soul and love reverberating deep into the Water Tribe girl’s own. To strangers these would sound like whimpers, to Korra they were the crescendoes of her time on this Earth. As was the deft scrape of manicured nails scoring her patched shoulder blades. The tiny pop she could sense as she kissed, and felt her breathing shift from her throat to though her nose. 

 

Enjoying the penetrating kiss and her own hair being free’d by Korra pulling and flicking her scrunchie onto her own wrist. Raven locks falling down her back Asami adjusted them again, shirt falling away as she flipped Korra into the corner beneath the unplugged camera. Straddling and tugging at the jeans below her clumsily. Korra’s hands thumbed at her nipples while she gave her kisses that might bruise, her bites certainly did. Asami took her head with both hands, catching her gaze and urging her to share without words, breath catching through her smudged open lips as Korra’s hand slipping into her slacks at this awkward angle. Her own free hand tangled in ebony locks she pulled her down to silence the oncoming whimpers and take them in her own mouth.

 

They folded into the next position, seamlessly, knowing what would work best as Korra pressed her warm body flush against Asami, who’s back came against the box cool wall. She barely registered the moan that escaped her and Korra laughed against her lips.

 

“ _Shush_.” she urged, her engineer retaliating by turning her head and biting Korra’s ear lobe, she yelped and pushed her tighter into the wall in a mismatched shocked reciprocation. Despite herself she bit at Asami’s neck harder, her hands found the flesh at the back of her ribs and pinched it between her fingers. Korra angled her hips and found a steady rhythm. Her lips over her ear, red tipped, her warm voice sent a shiver down the heiress’ spine that almost sent her over the edge.

 

“I love you so much I can’t stand it.”

 

“What?” She could barely get out the word before Korra pressed deeper and curled her fingers against just the right spot.

 

Asami had to worry her lip, hard, to keep from crying out as waves gripped her. She felt Korra steady her against the wall and carded her fingers through her short hair. She tried her best to decipher what she was hearing, and what Korra might have experienced to go from zero to sixty like this. Uncurling her toes, and softening her grip Asami leaned her forehead against Korra’s as she held her, carrying her down from her high, just enough so that she could open her eyes, and see the tears in Korra’s.

 

“I never want to _lose_ you.”

 

“Then don’t.” Asami twirled her fingers through her chocolate locks at the base of her skull, “You have more control than you know Korra, and I don’t mean about just your decisions. Everything will be okay, because you can make it that way. That’s why you’re more special than anyone else.”

 

“It’s almost never me doing those things. Not until it’s too late.”

 

“But you always figure it out. And if you can’t well, that’s just change, and that’s what it means to be human.”

 

“And then I get reincarnated as somebody else?” Asami could hear in her voice what that meant to her, why she was afraid of it, not only did it mean death, but it meant their separation. She could go into the next life completely oblivious to the people she knew in the last one, the people she loved. They could go on living without her, and what was worse she would never see them again.

 

“Of course you will. Maybe I will too. But until then, we have this.” She raised her palm and knotted their fingers between their heads. Korra’s gaze switched between this connection, and the Engineer’s eyes. “I love you Korra.” It went without saying, but she said it anyway, because she loved the way the Officer’s lips twitched into that smug smirk whenever she heard it. 

 

Without warning her eyes began to glow, Asami tried to yank her hand free to hold Korra’s face but her grin only widened as her hand clenched. 

 

“ _Wait_.” her voice sounded dense, it reminded the heiress of when there were three Korra’s, speaking in unison through glowing mouths, “I’m controlling this.” The colours switched, from cold icy blue to a soft green, almost reflective of Asami’s own pale green eyes. Pitching down she kissed her, lips soft and pliant, they seemed to shift and sweep at a pleasant unusual rate. Almost like fusion. The heiress’ head swam and leaned back only to be surprised to no longer be sitting against the wall. 

 

_In fact they were standing, dancing more like, circling each other gently in the snow. She couldn't look down, because apparently in this memory she didn’t, only it wasn't a memory at all. More like a premonition. Hozier was playing, and despite being in the centre of a dance floor no one else was close._

 

I will not ask you where you came from

I will not ask and neither should you

 

Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips

We should just kiss like real people do

 

_Korra was looking down between them, almost bashful as emotion gripped her throat and left jewels shining in the corner of her eyes._

 

_“You’re going to smudge your make up.” Asami’s numb lips teased. Korra snickered as the heiress reached up and thumbed at the bleeding mascara with her white satin glove._

 

_“You think it’ll be a good enough excuse to go somewhere private.” Korra’s eyes flashed back up at her, shining teeth biting softly on her lower lip, fingers at her back dragging her nails lightly over the intricate netting. Asami loved the sound in all its complex subtlety, sending shivers in wing like shapes from her spine to her fingertips. Two hearts beating so hard in that moment they could almost have been four._

 

_“I like your thinking but, I think we should stay at our own wedding a little bit longer. I’m pretty sure there’s a cake I have to shove in your face here somewhere.”_

 

_“Not if I get you first.” Korra countered pushing up on her toes to kiss her wife._

 

Asami yanked her head back and hit the box wall, chest heaving and fingers clenching hard over Korra’s arms, so tight and hard not only could they bruise but as she released she could swear scars were stretching back into their regular shapes. Korra’s forehead kept her balanced against hers, panting just as hard, eyes still beaming.

 

“Again?” 

 

“ _Again_.” Korra happily complied.

 

_“Mom stop it you’re so gross!” Asami barely felt the tugs and light shoves on her collar between them as Korra licked into her mouth. “You’re crushing my head!” Katara crowed wiggling harder. Korra finally relented, bending down and blowing a raspberry on her daughters cheek, Asami mirrored from the other side and Katara broke out into squeals of uncontrollable laughter._

 

_“You’re no match for Satomom and CSI mommy!” Korra chuckled in her most evil sounding voice._

 

_“No! Aha, I have back up now!_ Stop! _I will be avenged!”_

 

_“Where’d you learn a word like avenged?” Asami pulled Katara more fully into her lap, almost too completely mesmerised by her to see that they were sitting in a hospital bed._

 

_“Mom told me about Aang and his paladin codename Kuzon and how the mighty avatar took on the secret service oreozation, and how she avenged him years later by taking on-mmph“ Korra slapped a hand over her daughters mouth._

 

_“_ Ok-ay, _that’s enough sugar for you!”  Her cheeks howled red as she dared look at her wife’s narrowed accusing eyes. “There is only so many times I can read_ Oh The Places You’ll Go _before I snap Asami.”_

 

_“Who cares that mom’s in trouble - I want to see my brother now!”_

 

_“Yeah who cares about my inappropriate storytelling!” Korra wholeheartedly agreed, scooping her arms beneath Asami’s arm and back at lightspeed, giving Asami perhaps two seconds to grip onto their four-year-old before teleporting into the next room._

 

_They stood at the window looking in. Korra lifted Katara onto the sill, who promptly shoved her face against the glass and scanned the newborns for her new brother._

 

_“He’s so…squishy looking.”_

 

_Korra slung her arm over Asami’s shoulder and kissed her temple as they admired his admirer._

 

_“He’s beautiful,” Korra told her, so soft it was almost silent. “Thank you.”_

 

“Spoilers.” Asami gasped, pulling back, “No more. I want. _I can’t._ ” 

 

“It’s okay.” Korra breathed back, eyes dimming, hands stroking her fiancee’s bare arms gently, a complete polar opposite to how Asami was holding her now, “Everything will be okay.”

 

“Better than.” she whispered, pushing her back. “You’re amazing.” 

 

They fell right back into making love, the sun had set and stars lit up outside but the only change in the lighting of the box was when Korra’s eyes began to glow occasionally. Asami could have sworn her scars and patches lit up too as she dragged her teeth down them. It was a heady tonic, turning the world’s most powerful being prone and trembling under the engineers’ hands. Drunk with lust and power, she climbed up her exhausted body, setting with her hips between her legs.

 

Korra was staring up at the ceiling with a far away look on her face as her breathing became less shuddery and more controlled. She was quiet for a long time, and Asami listened to her thick heart beat all the while before curiosity got the better of her.

 

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Asami asked, dropping a kiss on Korra’s lips as she watched her mind return to the present. 

 

“I was just thinking about our first time,“

 

“Which one?”

 

“Your first, last year. Three days ago. _The beta test._ ” Asami chuckled fondly at the nickname, relishing in the short circuit that occurred when Korra cupped her hands behind her neck and drew soft lips down the line of her jaw.

 

“Was a good beta test,” she combed appreciative fingers through her bob and kept her close, “really made me want to invest in a long term contract with the company, in the company, _all over the company,_ ”  


“Mmn I love it when you talk shop.” The heiress felt her hum gleefully into her throat, biting softly. 

 

“I was actually really scared.”

 

“I don't believe it.”

 

“I was scared you weren't real.” Her voice took that desperate ire that made Korra melt. She didn't say anything but wrapped her arms more strongly around her, she was there, tangled in limp loose clothing and pulled flush against her. “The you in my shower. The you that belonged to me. I had to prove it.” 

 

“I hate my own cosmic sense of timing you know that right?”

 

“I think we’re both kind of terrible.” The heiress bumped her knuckles gently over her collar bone, “I loved that you knew me, what I liked. It made it less nerve wracking, and… fucking _amazing_.” 

 

“Mm I could say the same. I love it when we do that. We were fucking and sleeping and it was just so…calm, I love it when we’re calm like that.” 

 

“I love it when I wake up in bed and you’re still there.” Asami didn't mean it to come out as such a backhanded compliment. Korra smirked, briefly, sensing weakness in her voice Korra pulled her head back to catch her eyes. She could hear that she had been holding onto this since it happened, since she left her. 

 

“I can’t believe I made you cry like that.”

 

“Technically it wasn't you. It was cosmic random proximity and very little you. I hope.” 

 

“I swore I was going to beat the snot out of whoever did that to you.” Korra chuckled.

 

“You’ve still got time.” Asami countered, “I just can’t believe how easily you flashed me when you tried to wipe my face with your shirt.”

 

“Nothing you hadn’t kissed before.” Asami let her fingers trace the scar on the back of Korra’s neck, massaging the puckered silk strip as she bit her lip and blushed harder, “What?”

 

“I kind of…I wasn't thinking, and I missed you and I was tired and so I kind of kissed your neck while you were sleeping that night.”

 

“Oh my god, _you little stalker.”_

 

_“Well you moaned my name in your sleep!”_

 

_“Oh snap_ I guess I used to dream of you a lot.”

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

“Not like that.” Asami cocked an eyebrow, “Ok a little like that. But mostly it was just this.” she lifted the long fingers she had been playing with, “I get a lot of Deja Vu actually.”

 

They flinched out of their reverie when by a muffled smacking on the box wall.

 

“Ugh, You guys?” Mako was shouting, it was weak and he sounded more confused and discombobulated than usual but he pressed on, “Korra’s been asleep, I mean you guys have been in there six hours…I came out of my coma. Varrick put in all the passwords. We got some new files to look at if you want to join us…she’s not answering Zhu Li!”

 

“Coming! We’re totally coming!” Korra yelled, as Asami muffled her giggles under her hand. “Oh grow up Sato.” Korra leaned up on her elbow and looked down on her, “Do you really want to stay on this hard floor?”

 

“It’s fine, I already had my way with you.” she joked disentangling and leafing through fabrics on the floor for her own clothes. She gave herself a mental pat on the back for picking a shirt with snap shut buttons. Soon enough she was indulging her habit of tying together Korra’s shirt buttons for her, not before kissing the bruises and scars underneath. 

 

The officer had her hands behind her head and was working her tangled locks into that adorable puffy pony tail. She caught Asami’s almost hungry expression, she cocked an eyebrow.

 

“What?”

 

“You. Are. So. Fucking. _Cute_!” The engineer raised her hands to cup her face and bent her neck to kiss her, but before Korra could close her eyes to enjoy it - she was gone. 

 

Dread filled her instantly, gripping and choking she could barely say her name. Not until at least, she heard her scream from outside the box.

 

She Jumped without thinking, whirling around the room full of strangers, until her eyes caught Asami Sato, face to face with the man in the mask.

 


	24. Chapter 24

Noatak felt cold pressure on the bridge of his nose first, the mask clamping tightly and its forceps burrowing tightly into clammy skin. From that second everything in his perspective shifted, heart seizing in his chest, through nodes on his temples fierce glowing light poured in. Shivers coursed down his spine as his nerve ending registered a power the human body was never meant to feel. The tips of his fingers could feel every molecule in the air, bent around them and teeming at his touch. 

 

What he could touch however was far from his concern at that moment, his eyes were lost, peeking into a room that was entirely unlike the one he had been standing in, ten seconds prior in Gaza. He saw an open plan apartment, lit barely with the early morning sun nothing but a sliver on the horizon through the window wall. Between him and this a bed, a dark skinned woman, her muscular back to him holding herself above her paler counterpart on her elbow, her free hand was tracing the lines of her lips with the pad of her calloused thumb.

 

His presence was unknown to them, sure enough he wasn't even sure if his body had followed him to this place as he watched. Through overlays and nonsensical numbers, through tinted glass and thousands of miles, he watched the woman, satisfied with the way she mapped her lovers lips, bend her neck to taste them. He felt an urge to look away, this was a grossly inhuman invasion of privacy and yet, the paladin found his gaze bouncing from the pale hand that knotted into the dark skinned woman’s chocolate locks, to her back and the scars that marred it. 

 

He’d never seen so many injuries on a person before let alone a woman. Noatak couldn't help the feeling that he knew something about those scars. In his line of work it was to be expected that he had too many enemies to remember. Generations of jumpers had come and gone since he had began, and each had left their mark on the other. While he was certain this woman was a stranger to him, there was something about those marks, and the way her companion touched them, that led him to think other wise. Her nimble fingers were affectionate and possessive, even when gentle. The Paladin could imagine she had been there after the wounds were inflicted, and put everything in to letting them heal. So much so that they were hers too. 

 

They stretched and realigned as she slipped her arms under the raven haired girl’s back, tangling into the sheets so that they almost swallowed them. Heads poking out, arms full of each other and the water tribe girl’s head tucked under her slender neck. Nuzzling her throat, the darker girl looked ready to let sleep take her, until the green eye’d girl’s eyes darted towards Noatak. He repressed the urge to find a way to flee, until he realised she wasn't looking at him. But the couch behind him, the laptop still half open. It had run out of power since she had abandoned it, her tumbler of whiskey had toppled over hours ago, still that first frame haunted her from the bed. 

 

“I’ll never jump again ‘Sami,” she was pulled out of her trance by the desperate ire in her lovers voice.

 

“You can’t promise that.”

 

Following her gaze to the cog on the laptops back, Noatak knew then that this was the Sato girl. He should have known from her face really, he’d brought an eerily similar face to its end years ago. It had been one of the last one he’d seen before his own was marred so horribly. The irony was not lost on him that she was now kissing the teenager, now the woman, who’s death his colleague had planned against his orders.

 

So this was how Hiroshi knew the WTT was still alive and sleeping with his daughter. He smirked imagining how that conversation would have gone down. The Golden Goose had just fallen into his lap. Two if he counted the familiar and the opportunity that came with it. 

 

He watched her wake the following morning, dressing quietly and tiptoeing around her sleeping partner. Sitting on the edge of the bed feeding a silken necklace into a dark blue box. Bowing over her after placing paper on the pillow beside her, and kissing her forehead. Tugging the blanket higher over her chest. This girl was a heavy sleeper, the Teleporter was smoothing hair away from her face and she didn't even stir. Looking down on her with a hard gaze and those unnatural bright blue eyes, he strained his ears to hear her whisper.

 

“ _Please say yes_.”

 

Smirking Noatak tried to will his hands to the contraption on his head, sure enough it came free. As he lifted he could now hear the ramblings of the now terrified Professor, being lifted by his lapels against the wall by the severely pissed off Lieutenant.

 

“…The mask can show us, him, the paths he will take and the people on them, more specifically, when cross referenced with the Avatar blood, it is more than likely Amon can see where she is now as easily as where she will be.” His voice pitched up into a shrill panicky whine, “ _Space is an illusion, time doubly so, and this mask can manipulate it’s pieces so give the wearer powers similar but not pertaining to the Jumpers of this earth. With this mask he could even control them._ ” 

 

Leuten dropped him as he whirled to his boss, dropping the scientist like he was nothing as Noatak yanked the mask from his head like it was on fire. “Show me.”

 

XXX

 

Mako was stretching his arm, more specifically his new skin. Shifting through stances as he watched Kya do the same, well he copied whatever it was she was doing. The Yoga and Thai Chi instructor had been with Lin at the station, showing the chief all that remained of Aang’s buddy box. The three empty bottles of scotch, she and her siblings had shared them at their father’s funeral, and every piece of Paladin Intel her family had gathered while the investigation was painless.

 

Over the years this was all that remained of him after moves and other than photos. And unbeknownst to them until now, Korra. Still the whole thing seemed moot now that Varrick was busy decoding the files that had been stolen by Korra’s parents.

 

Patience was a virtue that Kya possessed, that and the ability to share it with others. This was the talent that led to the odd scene unravelling in the facility right now. Lin was pacing, that wasn't odd, but it was merely because she refused to take part in either of the two activities going on either side of her. The madness of Varrick and almost the entirety of RCPD undergoing a staff wide Thai Chi lesson.

 

“After all these years at the top Lin, I would think you’d jump at the chance to relax, unwind those cables that keep you dancing.”

 

“After all these years I didn't think you could make a career out of fancy poses and yet,” she gestured to her force who either seemed to blush, smirk or were too embarrassed to continue. 

 

“It’s actually doing me a world of good Chief.” Mako lips fell into a small smile at his boss’ gruff demeanour. 

 

“I should trust the word of a man who just got lit up like a birthday cake?” 

 

“Make a wish!” Bolin crowed breaking stance to throw Mako into his fifteenth spontaneous hug of the day. His mood had been improved tenfold since Mako had woken, but the idea of his demise seemed to really focus and emblazon how precious this second chance was. It could have been so much worse. Mako winced at the contact but didn't complain.

 

“Bo, stop disrupting the class!” Opal laughed.

 

“I can’t believe you’ve brainwashed my niece into your bizarre little cult too.”

 

Opal was just starting to hum _I’ve got no strings to pull me down!_ to taunt her Aunt until Varrick yelled

 

“We’re in!” 

 

The projections chained, black filtered into words, and the entirety of the files could be seen. As everyone turned, Mako remembered the reason they had them in the first place. He stumbled to the box and smacked.

 

“Ugh, You guys?” Mako shouted, unsure who would even be listening, “Korra’s been asleep, I mean you guys have been in there six hours…I came out of my coma. Varrick put in all the passwords. We got some new files to look at if you want to join us…she’s not answering Zhu Li!”

 

“Coming! We’re totally coming!” He blushed trying not to think of the implications of that statement. Turning he saw almost everyone watching the screens above, his own attention was captured by the only man in the room wearing a suit, and a mask. He blinked, twice, watching another step through a crack in the air.

 

The mask crouched, flinging silver ball bearings around the room. Before Mako could shout light carved from the devices, and he was flung back into the wall by it. 

 

XXX

 

“You. Are. So. Fucking. _Cute_!” The heiress was about to grab Korra’s adorable face and kiss her sleepy happy smug lips. 

 

Asami felt a grip on her entire being that she had been trying to forget since Kuvira, only this grip was both feral and unyielding. The box fell away, and she faced a mask the likes of which she had never faced before. The voice that came from behind it however, it was something she could ever shake from the core of her being since she first heard it yesterday. By the way it sounded she could have sworn he was smirking.

 

“This won’t take a minute. Miss Sato.” 

 

Her eyes open a crack, Asami could see the troopers and Paladins had already busted through the windows and doors.

 

Korra was already out. Bouncing from her Jump straight into a barrier of silver and light. Painful to the touch she surged back blue eyes wide. They caught on something familiar, sure enough she was staring at something she saw in her every day life. A circle, and inside that a cog, on each and every contraption that produced these opaque barriers. Asami had made these. No not Asami, her cog was half, this was whole, Hiroshi. Paladins.

 

“ _Asami_!” _Concentrate,_ she berated herself, _get to your Familiar._ But she couldn’t, she could barely see past this barrier of light and energy and when she so much as stepped towards it, volts scored through her brain. Her heart kicked into high gear, palms open she reached out, hovering slightly over the barrier. Eyes glowing, she touched the wall, carving her fingers down it and parting the veil like curtains.

 

The second she stepped through she was met by a swift kick to the face, propelling her into the next barrier which shocked her.

 

“Not bad.” The man looked down on her as she rolled to some semblance of safety, holding two taser poles high to defend himself. 

 

“ _Leuten_.” Korra grunted gripping her jaw. He was older but this was definitely the man who shocked her past life. Shining through the goggles and head gear was the man who killed Aang.

 

“Okay colour me impressed.” He lunged electricity blazing. With the corners of her wrists she parted his arms at lighting speed, the plugs hitting the walls and short circuiting them.

 

“ _Not this time!”_ she snapped, ploughing her foot straight into his chest. He balanced himself on his hands legs swinging which Korra dodged, backwards landing on her shoulder blades and throwing herself forward. He parried and cracked his bar across her cheek bone, the metal biting into her eyebrow and piercing the skin. She grabbed his wrist and yanked him past her, foot catching his shin and sending him off balance. Her palm made short work of his jaw, forcing him to bite an unfortunately placed tongue and spit blood. 

 

Leuten lay on the floor dribbling blood. Korra turned, Paladins and Jumpers and Officers had stopped their fray. Either unconsciousness or mere shock. She could see the crack in the air these men had created, unlike her own it wasn't healing, it remained split. 

 

“Enough!” There was a crack. Or a bang. It took Korra a few seconds to understand what had just happened. That didn’t mean she had to believe it.

 

For the most part it felt like deja vu. Asami was levitating mid air. This time she was being lowered, and Korra felt the heart falling with her. Not just her heart, everything. One hand, the man was aiming towards her, the other, the same except he was holding a gun. Her face was turning away, lolling on to her shoulder, hiding. From the distance she could see her throat barely move, allowing the words to ooze out of her mouth. 

 

“Run Korra.” 

 

“Asami?” 

 

She couldn’t answer. The heiress touched the floor then, and didn't move. Bleeding gently into the wood. All their plans fell away in a second, their future was gone. Katara. Kuzon. Asami Sato. Korra Sato. Dead. 

 

Korra found her self on her knees as he turned to her. The ground was cracked around her, Leuten himself had lurched back. A second shot may have been fired but she couldn't feel a thing. In that moment she was completely bowled away. Her lips played around with the words _Please. Don’t._ and _Asami._ Shecould feel the shocked gazes from her friends, her family. Their breath against her skin, mingling in the air. Their heart beats, their cells. She felt herself become less human and more what she was. A heady mantra of _no no no no_ drove her emblazoned soul.

 

Eyes shining white her mouth opened and all her voices began to speak. As far back, and far forward as time allowed. 

 

“There’s a reason you don't kill my Familiar first.” If she could feel anything at all at that moment, she swore she felt icy tears cut down her cheeks,

Her muscles flexed and strained with all her impossible strength. She tried not to think about how Asami had been kissing them earlier, how her hands traced every crevice where they joined. The wood beneath her splintered and shattered, the machines that Varrick had been knocked from burst into flames. The fire alarms set off the sprinklers. The fire turned into shards of white hot flame, concentrated energy, the water hit the ground like stone and the ground itself, in places started to melt. The air, thick and hot around her began to swirl. 

 

Her hand twitched and Hiroshi’s barriers turned to dust. In all this she managed to stand, willing her friends to safety. Without fully realising it she was pulling them that way. Teleporting them outside, teleporting those of them who weren’t even in the facility to begin with. Jinora fell into Bolin and Kai followed. Tenzin fell into his sister, as did Su with hers. Katara was pulled through, caught by Opal and Mako. Korra heard a panicked noise from Varrick, and instantly connected his shrill excitable voice with something he had suggested once.

 

_Let them live to death._

 

The man in the mask was starting to panic, he’d emptied his clip at her. 

 

“Wait!” He yelled, “Can’t you see what you are!” All she could see was Asami. How impossibly pale she looked, almost translucent. Just seeing her was enough to obliterate the ground beneath her feet. “You could destroy the world! You could murder thousands!” She switched her gaze, and caught sight of her own terrifying expression in the reflection of the mask. “You brought this on her! Your kind is too impossible to live!” 

 

She could feel him trying to curl his fingers around her heart. Using the mask and her own abilities against her. It was so weak she almost wanted to laugh. Korra knew she was slipping, and for that moment welcomed it, soon enough she felt herself propped on the arms or those she was before, she could feel Aang in her place, and Kyoshi, and Roku.

 

 “Balance is impossible to without her.” They spoke, but Korra yanked herself back, eyes dimming just for that second, just to see her with her own eyes again before whispering gently to herself,

 

“ _I would tear the world apart to get her back._ ” 

 

She raised her arms and a pulse flew out from her, the glass of the mask shattered, revealing the scarred face of the man beneath it.

 

“Amon!” Leuten howled. Korra raised her arms yanking them together. The wind swirled fiercer and colder. Fires extinguished and rage was icy and sharp and _everywhere._ The walls tumbled, they turned to dust and became one with the wind, sure enough her friends and family could see her, ageing the world around them. Glass to sand, weeds whirling out of the ground and twisting around their legs. 

 

She couldn’t hear their shouting, over the wind, over her own screaming mind. Despite all she was doing and its complete sensory assault, all she could think about was her Asami. The way her feet stroked hers when they slept. How she bit her smile after Korra won an argument, as rare as that may be. Fingers interlocking with hers while she read, and balanced accounts and ran a company one handed while Korra struggled to find something decent on TV. How sweet it was to kiss her finally, after all these years of loving her completely. 

 

Amon and his Lieutenant were mid air now, held there by Korra’s hesitating hands. The wind became fiercer and the shell of Amon’s mask began to crawl away, as did fibres from his suit. 

 

Korra winced, she felt a tight clamp on her ankle, and whipped her head down to see Katara. The elderly woman was looking up at her with tears in her calm blue eyes. Despite her furious expression, she didn't even flinch, simply pressing on her toes she had both hands on Korra’s leg now, pulling her to her level, gently slowly, in the epicentre of this tiny storm. All the hovering men in the room dropped.

 

Katara pulled her into her arms, she was surprisingly strong for her age and stature, and yet she managed it, and Korra let her. Aang let her. It almost felt as if he body shifted between the two beneath her hands. The Avatar buried their face into Katara’s jacket and croaked.

 

_“Katara I don’t know what’s happening.”_

 

The old water tribe woman blanched, thrown back twenty years.

 

“Everything will be okay, because you can make it that way. Korra. That’s why you’re more special than anyone else. You have your choices. You don’t have to be what they make you.”

 

Aang stepped back, grey eyes warm, looking down on his wife. He lifted a hand and traced a hand over her now young cheek. For an instant, he pulled time his way, and in the next he let it spring back, only this time he was with his wife and not his next life. Korra pulled away eyes dimming, turning walking to her fiancé still laying on the only perfect piece of floor.

Korra took her stiff body into her arms, felt the blood, dark, sticky and cold seep through her clothes and held her close. Katara kneeled close to them, taking Korra’s hand and laying it over the surface of her chest. Her peridot eyes were closed, and holding her body was less like holding a person but an empty vessel, the soul of which she could no longer see. Korra let instinct take over, eyes glowing, wound beneath her hand spitting a bullet and healing, and still nothing. All she could feel beneath her fingers was the tear shaped scar puckered from that perfect chest, but no pulse.

 

“Asami… _No_.” She readjusted her in her arms so she could touch her lips with a calloused thumb, “You can’t do this.” Alas this was something Korra had no idea how to control, space and time was one thing, life itself was something else entirely. It was traded, reincarnated and passed on. “Asami I love you. Please don’t do this.”

 

“She needs life.” Katara deduced, only her voice sounded different, fused with her husbands, Korra looked up and finally paid attention, to the youthful ethereal glow coming from her elder. Katara’s hand took her own, and before she could protest, the glowing began again, fiercer, brighter. Korra heard Tenzin and Kya shouting, but it was too bright for her to see properly. Katara and Aang were reduced to light, and between them seeped in a bright green that swallowed everything. 

 

Lin and her troopers were on her enemies in a flash, Korra’s influence had stunned and weakened them to a point where Amon and Leuten had to be yanked and frogmarched by the officers of RCPD.

 

When it was over, almost everything looked normal, she twisted and turned, Katara was no where to be seen. 

 

“Katara?”

 

“I saw her.” Korra could hear Tenzin now, he was about six feet away on his knees, his sister beside him.

 

“She was with dad.” She breathed clutching her brother’s arm as they stared at the space just above Korra. Who was still feeling slightly empty and at a loss. 

 

“What did she do?” She flinched, swearing she just felt a twitch beneath her hands. “Asami?”

 

Korra looked down finally, Asami’s eyes fluttered and opened, and then she winced from the light. Korra almost choked on her own breath, feeling her finance stretch and turn against her, just as though she where waking up from a nap. She brushed her hair from her face with trembling hands, adrenaline still coursing through every molecule of her being. She didn't dare to bend down to steal a kiss in case her breath stopped huffing gently against her fingertips. The heiress smiled as her thumb traced the bridge of her nose and looked up at her, curling her fingers weakly into Korra’s shirt she whispered in that sweet husky morning voice that Korra loved, 

 

“Hey you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its finally finished.  
> I might be persuaded to do some kind of epilogue but right now I reaally need to concentrate on uniwork and not day dreaming about teleporting. That comes after uni when I finally get my super powers.
> 
> Its really been fun to write and comments really make this worth while so don't be shy, ask any questions, say what you like say what you hate I don't mind. 
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> C


	25. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AS Promised.   
> I think I have another AU in me but for now I think I'm done with the teleporters. Maybe. Probably. Eh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluffy smutty fluffy what?

Korra loved being the big spoon, or the jetpack, as Asami had affectionately named it. She loved it most in the mornings, nose nuzzled and soft lips barely touching the back of the heiress’ neck. It allowed her to appreciate her wife without the need for bashful stumbling about why she was staring with her own flourescently bright blue eyes. All this time had passed and Asami Sato still made her nervous.

 

She listened to her breath mingled with the white noise that came with the rain pattering on the windows. The icy humidity was already sending her scars in a frenzy of pleasurable tingles. If she wasn’t sure she could control the Avatar state it almost felt like she was glowing. The water just outside fell through her like a ghost, almost like charging, keeping her awake, there was power in it.

 

Raven hair tied up, it had sifted into the seams of the pillows beneath them, and above their heads. She could follow the dusting of freckles behind her ear, Korra had admired them for years, when Asami couldn't know how she felt, even when she started to wear make up in their teens they always went uncovered. The teleporter enjoyed the secrecy of them. 

 

As she moved, flexed, went about waking in all those deft subconscious moves, she noticed the engineer waking too. Sensing this Korra pitched up and kissed the marks gently. 

 

“Mn no, my husband will be home soon.” Korra watched the smile tug on the corner of her wife’s lipstick smudged mouth and whispered wryly.

 

“You’re hilarious.” 

 

“You love it.” Asami mumbled as Korra propped herself up on her elbow to take in just how proud of her comeback she was. It only made her smile more.

 

“I do. I love you more than air.”

 

“More than air?” 

 

“That thing we need to live. I love you more than that.”

 

“What about Earth, Fire and Water?”

 

“Screw the elements I have you.”

 

Asami let out a chuckle before turning her face into the silken softness of her pillow, fingers curling tighter around Korra’s, her left arm reaching for her right, tucked under her ribs. Korra’s left was not only around her but her hand was snug in its accustomed place; pulling the tank top over her wrist and rucking it up so her fingers could rest between the hollow of Asami’s breasts where there sat that tear drop bullet scar. Beneath that beat her heart. Morning after morning the heiress woke to Korra checking everything was still in order. Or out of it, depending on your perspective.

 

The mark had long since stopped hurting, and after so long the puckered skin’s tone had begun to match. It didn't stop Korra from staring at it every once in a while with that far off look on her face. Even without looking she knew it was there, as real as their scars. It took a long time for Korra to stop handling Asami like she could crumble after that. As though pushing a toe out of line with death after cheating him was enough to bring everything back to the way it should be.

 

Asami shifted her hips slightly, knowing full well her distraction was working when the Police Captain’s fingers through hers stopped stroking the length of hers, nails to knuckles.

 

The heiress reached for Korra’s hand in her shirt and pulled it away gently. She looked back from the corner of her peridot eye to confirm that yes, her ministrations had landed. She bit down on her smile and whispered in that husky morning voice she knew her wife adored. 

 

“Happy Anniversary baby.” 

 

Korra’s breath audibly caught in her throat, it took her an embarrassingly long moment before she could collect herself. Korra turned her while raising herself, long hair swept over her head Asami could reach up and play with her ear as she rolled on her back.

 

Korra couldn't help her grin as Asami’s fingers trailed from her ear to her brow, thumbing the scar and split amongst the fine hair. “I love hearing you say that.” 

 

“Good…but I’m not going to say it for another year.”

 

“Oh _come on_.”

 

“Treasure the memory Mrs Sato.”

 

“Not without a fight!” Korra crowed, tugging her back and knotting their hands, up beside the heiress’ head planting an open mouthed kiss on her throat briefly before arching her back and kissing the skin where her vest rode up. Asami locked her legs around her waist and tugged against her grip. Korra’s hair the target, but her strength stopped her from carding her fingers through it. Her forceful lips trying but failing to pull her vest all the way up.

 

“You’re going to have to let my hands go if you want to undress me.”

 

“I’m sorry I can’t understand the language you’re speaking. The Satobot must preclude each sentence with _happy,_ and end it with _baby_ or I wont be able to understand it.”

 

“It!” she cried out at the insult and Korra giving up on the vest altogether and mouthing her breast through it. “Teeth!” Korra only chuckled in response, she knew every button, every move, every patch of sensitive skin and how to handle it to evoke her pleasure, and send her hips surging up. “You’re such a bitch- _such a bitch fu-uck-”_ Korra pitched up and captured her lips mid-rant, despite the tongue it was tender and passionate. 

 

“ _Shush up,_ d’you want to wake up the whole mansion?”

 

“You’re gonna get it Captain!” Korra’s breath skipped, not from her words but the way the Engineer expertly manoeuvred her legs beneath her to flip them. Korra released her hands in an attempt to regain the upper hand but was shifted at the last second, catching wild peridot eyes before they zoomed out of her view as Asami kissed her neck, intending to leave a mark that would go uncovered by the red silk choker that Korra refused to take off. Unperturbed by the move, Korra’s hands tangled with her shirt and started to pull up. Feeling laughter bubbling in her throat at the way they were behaving, all this time and they still went at each other like teenagers. 

 

She felt the drag of her nails score her arms and ribs as she pulled, heart lifting and the sight of pure joy on Asami’s face. Even through the dark, and morning haze, happiness swelled in almost incapacitating waves. Almost. 

 

“Prove it.” she whispered softly, conflict ebbing away as lips melded with pale skin. Inhaling she caught that engine oil scent that lingered after showers, and balms and sleep. Maybe it was muscle memory, she could catch the scent on the air a million miles away and feel the ghost of her lips on her skin. She loved how she’d retreated from the boardrooms these days, how Korra could find her tinkering in her garage, creating hover this and hydro that, rambling to everyone and no one how recyclable energy was ready to go whenever and she’d prove it gosh darn it. 

 

Korra may have superpowers but this was the woman who could save the world. She knew that as she slipped her hands up her inner thigh and listened to her silken voice skip against her cheek. 

Asami’s fingers traced the strips at Korra’s back as her wife thumbed her nipple, bowing her head to bite at its peak. The heiress shivered and shifted, clutching the muscles of Korra’s arching back and pushing her forehead to her temple as Korra steadied her slick centre over her hand. The heiress let out a whimper as Korra flexed her hips and let her fingers curl. Pushing her to that edge inch by inch, as her usually eloquent words devolved into syllables and then holding her there, hostage. 

 

She jerked her hips, but Korra caught her, avoiding her primal glare by tracing her lips across her cheek to her ear.

 

“You know what I want,” she whispered it so softly the words came from the blade of her tongue, punctuated with a hungry kiss where the jaw and throat joined. Asami bit her lip in defiance.

 

Korra had her teetering on the precipice of orgasm, despite her trembling, and the walls closing in around her fingers, Korra had mastered the art of delayed gratification via her superior strength. She could feel her grinning against her flushing neck, the sun was rising now, beaming its sharp light beams peeking on her skin, illuminating it. Caught in this gorgeous stand off, Asami wracked her shrinking brain for so long it gave her wife the time to pull her fingers out, leaning back so she could watch her lap the taste from her digits. The heiress’ head spun at the sight, that and the emptiness she felt made it hard to connect what her wife had disconnected. 

 

“Anniversary baby,”

 

“I’m sorry whats that?”

 

“ _Happy Anniversary._ Sweetie, baby doll face hon- _EY!”_ on the last word Korra laid her back and locked her legs over her shoulders. “ _How are you so good at this_?”

 

Korra responded with a long slow lick.

 

“How are we even doing this?” She whispered it knowing Korra couldn't exactly hear her, “Oh _God_.” The Captain was quickly regaining ground, feeling The Engineer shudder against her mouth and reaching up to tangle their hands, tacky with beads of sweat, jewels that littered their bodies. For a blinding moment Asami tried to imagine what her sixteen year old self would think of this, the one just starting to realise her feelings for her best friend, and being petrified of them. Who avoided her best friend’s swim meets like the plague because she couldn't know where her eyes would linger, or what those stares would reveal to her scantily clad crush. How impossible everything they had gone through had seemed, and how it made this moment all the more exquisite. 

 

She covered her face and felt tears on her palms as she muffled her screams, back arching, coming hard and slow, toes flexing against the air, vision blurring white, but Korra was relentless. Another followed, unable to find words after the third she fed her fingers into her wife’s hair to pull her up. 

 

Korra’s mouth nudged her betrothal necklace before Asami cupped her cheeks and kissed her softly, sweeping her hair again so she could play with her ear as she caught her breath. Watching her blue eyes gleam and her chin still glistening.

 

“I _win_.” The Water Tribe woman whispered huskily, angling her body along the heiress’ side and stroking her fingers along the length of hers, nails to knuckles, lingering only to play with the platinum band she had gifted her wife with on this day, fifteen years ago. 

 

“If you call that losing, I don’t ever want to succeed.” Asami finally breathed. 

 

“Every morning I wake up with you is a victory Asami.” She turned into her, cupping the Captain’s jaw, “And you know…in the afternoon, middle of the night…after a quickie at the tower, making the famous Sato Tower Elevator security sex tape especially,” 

 

“You had to ruin it didn’t you,” but she said it with a smile.

 

“Not that I need to refer back to it now, if I remember right, you started it.” Korra lowered her hands to grip her ass, “like this I believe.”

 

Just as Asami slipped a leg between Korra’s a loud clang rang through them both from just ouside the bedroom door. She instantly hid her face in Korra’s chest who in turn threw the blanket over her their bare bodies.

 

“Are they in? Have they landed?” Asami murmured against her hands and Korra eyed the door that had yet to explode.

 

“I think we’re safe for a bit longer.” Asami turned to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table, spying the time between melted the candles. 

 

“How are they awake at 5am on a Sunday?” 

 

“I may have mentioned to Katara that I made my parents breakfast on their anniversaries when I lived with them.”

 

“But you’re a terrible cook.”

 

“Maybe it’s possible they take their culinary skills after you?” Korra offered, hopeful until an almighty crash shocked them to the bone.

 

“Mom!” Katara burst in, flour in her hair and wearing a _Baking is better in Ba Sing Se_ apron so big she almost tripped on its hem. Korra yanked the blanket over Asami’s shoulders and double checked everything was covered. “Kuzon is on top of the cabinets! Whisking eggs!”

 

“How did he reach the eggs?”

 

“How did he get on top of the cabinet?” Her parents asked at the same time. Katara only shrugged. 

 

“I don’t know every time I ask him to get down he threatens to yolk me!” 

 

“ _I WAS ONLY YOLKING!_ ” the tiny boy’s scream cut through the house like it was butter, Katara whirled and stomped to her brother.

 

“Don’t you shout puns at me you puny-!” the door slammed shut behind her and Asami let out the breath she had been holding.

 

“How does he manage to get himself in such weird places?” Korra mused sitting up and reaching for her sweatpants.

 

“He wouldn’t get like that if you didn't feed him past eight pm.”

 

“Jesus he’s like a gremlin.” Korra chuckled yanking a slim fit long sleeved light blue top over her head. Asami wrapped herself in a silk robe and yanked her mussed up hair into a messy ponytail. 

 

All the while shooting Korra wide eyed looks only to watch her fight off laughter at each new smash and shout. 

 

Asami reached the door handle but Korra snatched at her hand. 

 

“No matter what happens out there, know that love follows you.”

 

“You’re such a nerd.” Asami pecked her lips.

 

“Happy anniversary baby.” She squeezed her hand and watched her fall so her forehead touched hers, “I love you, and this, and what we are. You’re my best friend, and cosmic partner and everything I could ever want in a wife.” Her throat closed briefly, despite all her strength Korra always had a hard time expressing this side of her emotional spectrum. Still she powered through it. “I imagined going back in time to meet my ten year old self.”

 

“ _Danger.”_ Asami murmured, a wry smile gracing her lips.

 

“And telling her, me, that all this waits.”

 

“What do you think she’d say?”

 

“First, she’d smile so big, she’d blind me, probably wrap her lanky arms around her skinny legs to hide it.” 

 

Asami couldn't help the chuckle that emanated from her heart then, remembering that little Korra.

 

“You thought you would be taller than me forever didn't you?”

 

“ _And then,_ she’d say ‘I knew it’” She was going to add, that Asami was her only dream, and even then she knew she’d do anything to be hers, but her mouth became suddenly very occupied.  

 

Hand in hand they walked into the battleground that had become of their kitchen. Faucet running, bowls and flour toppled on every corner, Katara was balancing on a swivel stool to flip pancakes on the stove. Naga happily licking the sugar and syrup that she had stepped on from her toes.

 

“Holy f-ruitcakes Katara why don’t you let me handle those…” Asami leapt into action and lifted the frying pan whilst dimming the hob. “Where’s Kuzon?”

 

“Whisking!” he yelled proudly from on high.

 

“Do you want to come down from there sweetness?” Korra enquired hands on her hips.

 

“ _No_!” he crowed.

 

“Fair enough.”

 

“Korra!”

 

“I’m sorry I can’t face this without coffee.” 

 

“Korra don’t you dare!”

 

“You know Kwong has our standing order ready.” The Captain grinned before disappearing.

 

“Oh she’s gonna get it!” 

 

“Get what mommy?” Katara turned in her mother’s arms to shine her baby blues up at her, “can I help her get it?”

 

“Uh no, it’s time to flip.” She shoved their masterpiece onto the stack her daughter had already made, “You made all these?”

 

“I helped!” Kuzon chirped.

 

“I called Chief Grandpa to get his recipe.”

 

“The heart attack one?”

 

“Bacon fat, cream, butter, flour, eggs, _lard_ …” Katara checked the ingredients off on her fingers.

 

“I think this’ll be enough for the four of us then.” The heiress turned the stove off and lifted her daughter onto her hip and the plate onto the kitchen island, on which Kuzon was already standing, proudly puffing out his chest in his fire ferret pajamas. “K how did you get down without any help?”

 

“I’m a super hero mom!” Asami smiled.

 

“Of course baby, get down from here so we can lay the table.” 

 

“I can prove it mom!”

 

“You don’t have to Kuzon, I know you’re super.”

 

“No look!” On the last word she flinched, whirling, expecting Korra to be back in the room. Only she was no where to be found. But there had been that zip, that pop in the air that came with a jumper jumping.

 

“See?” She whirled, and Kuzon was sitting atop the fridge. 

 

“Kuzon!” Katara yelped, “I said we’d show them together!” Katara wriggled from her mother’s arms and _jumped_ to the opposite side of the room, ploughing right into her other mother. 

 

“Hey whats the rush?” Korra laughed, holding her coffee cups high, and placing the _forever girl_ cup on the counter facing her wife. “Asami? You look like you’re freaking out.”

 

“CSI My Mommy!” Kuzon yelped gleefully, teleporting and latching onto his mother’s back. Korra tensed. Eyes wide and latched onto her wife’s. 

 

“What?” 

 

“What?” Asami replied.

 

_“What?”_

 

_“We’re teleporters,”_ Katara clapping proudly and waving her arms awaiting one of her mother’s to congratulate her already. 

 

“Asami I need my glasses.”

 


End file.
